Saturday Detention
by A.D. Williams
Summary: How in the world did ALL of the flock end up with Saturday detention? Yeah, even little Angel! Read and find out!
1. Points of Authority

Okay, let me say it here now that this is my first Max Ride story. Also, I _still _have yet to have read the third book (tried to order it on-line for Christmas, that and_ The Final Warning_ was all I asked for!) , so this story's more or less not based on any particular story, though I suppose it leans more toward the second book. As for guardians or parents...well, since this story's not based on anything, they go to school but live with Jeb (yes, I am aware that Jeb is ordinarily seen as the bad guy. I'm throwing my own personal twists in here!). And one last thing. The characters are out of character, especially Fang. He's not silly or anything, he's just a little more...vocal. So, if you don't mind any of this, go ahead and immerse yourself in my world of Maximum Ride!

Disclaimer: All Maximum Ride characters are property of James Patterson. Though, you can't own a person...or human-bird hybrids...

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**Points of Authority**

(Title of a song from Linkin Park's CD, _Hybrid Theory._ Kind of fitting, huh?

Man, what's been with me and LP lately?!)

(Monday)

Fang sat in class, tapping his pencil and staring blankly down at the test before him. He had to solve for x using exponents and square roots, and other methods of mathematics. He glanced at Iggy to see how he was doing. Then he remembered, Iggy was blind and in a special class that catered to his needs. He sighed and looked around. His eyes landed on Max. Max was chewing nervously on her eraser and punching wild calculations into her calculator. She didn't even look like she knew what she was doing. Then there was Lissa.

She sat right in front of him, the girl with the flaming red hair. All he had to do was get her attention just the slightest bit. He dropped his pencil on the floor. Actually, he more or less threw it in the girl's direction. It landed beside her left foot. She didn't reach down to get it. "Um-hm," Fang said quietly, hoping she'd hear him. She kept herself hunched over her test, absorbed in the near-impossible problems. "Um-hm!" Fang said louder. Still no reaction. Out of desperation, he gave a very loud cough, chocked on his saliva, and had a real coughing fit. Finally Lissa turned around.

"Do you need to get some water? Or are you always this gross?" He wouldn't ever admit it out loud, hell, he wouldn't admit it to himself, but that hurt! _Ouch. _This was the same girl who had seemed so desperate to kiss him on his first day at school and now...when did the tables turn? Fang forced himself to stop coughing and said hoarsely, "I dropped my pencil." "Well pick it up!" She snapped and turned back around. Just then, a shadow loomed over them. Their teacher. Without a word, she snatched up both his and Lissa's papers, crumpled them, and made two direct shots into the trash cans. Those who saw it, applauded. "Now, you two can go the the headmaster's office this moment." She told them, her lips pressed together in a thin line.

"You know, perhaps you should've tried out for the NBA," Fang said. "Because you suck as a teacher. Oh yeah, you're also growing a mustache." Her face turned livid. "Office! Now!" She screamed, pointing towards the door. Fang got up slowly, taking his sweet time leaving. He caught Max's eye, hoping for a grin from her. Instead she gave a disappointed stare. _Oh, not you too, Max? _Suddenly, Max gripped her stomach and moaned. "Ooh, I don't feel so good. I think I need to go to the nurse's office." "Finish your test first Ms. Maxine!" The teacher snapped. _It's Max. Just Max, _she thought. She couldn't let Fang go to the office by himself. His snide comments would only land him in more trouble. So, desperate times calling for desperate measures, she pulled a cliché cheerleader move and stuck her finger down her throat. She didn't throw-up but she gave enough of an impression to look as though she was going to. With a quick wave of her hand, the teacher dismissed her.

Max caught up to Fang and Lissa, who was walking moodily a few feet in front of him. "What'd you go and say that for?" She whispered to him. Though their hearing wasn't as good as Iggy's, he could hear her without Lissa overhearing as well. "What? You mean to tell me you understood that test?" he asked with a hint of calling bull on her. "Well maybe you would've understood it if you'd spend less time--" Max crossed her two hands and made a flapping motion. "And more time studying." "You know, I didn't ask for a sermon. I'm already about to get that from the Headhunter." Fang said dryly. "Well, you're making yourself look bad. Remember, we're supposed to be incognito," Max whispered. "Yes, Mother Max," Fang said, tired of arguing with her.

As they entered the office, the secretary glanced up at them, then continued her typing on her computer. "What're you here for?" She said in bored voice. "We were sent to the principal's office," Lissa said, throwing a nasty glare at Fang. He returned the stare, narrowing his dark eyes at her. "Uh-hm." She pressed a button on her desk and said, "Mr. Walton, there's some students here to see you." "Send them in," a voice said and a click was heard as the person left the conversation. "Go down that hall and take a right. It's the first door on your left." The secretary said, still not looking at them. Lissa pushed past the other two, bumping her shoulder into Max. Max made an attempt to grab the girl, but Fang pulled her back, shaking his head. "We're supposed to be incognito, remember?" He said with a smirk, then followed the other girl. _Damn I love him, but sometimes I feel like kicking his ass,_ Max thought, following them.

The headmaster's office was a little too up-scaled to be belonging to a principal. The furniture was some type of rich wood and shined from a recent polish. The pictures on the walls were of stern, stuffy-looking men, but not from America. Britain? His accent sounded as though that's where he was from. They sat down in three chairs facing his desk as he stared at them, fingers forming a peak. "Ah, so it's you two again?" He said in a not so very surprised tone. "Tell me, how's your brothers been? Anymore bombs?" Fang glanced out the corner of his eye and saw Max's jaw tighten, but she said nothing. The headhunter's eyes went to Lissa. "Ms. Scott, good heavens, what happened? I brag to the other teachers about how great of an exemplary student you are. What atrocity could have been bestowed upon you for you to end up _here?_" Fang's bent over and acted like he was tying his shoe to keep from laughing. _Atrocity?! Who really says that in normal conversation?! _Man, Gazzy was going to get a kick out of mimicking this once he told him.

Lissa's gums got to flapping and once they were opened, they weren't shutting anytime soon. "I was taking my algebra quiz, just minding my own business because I'm a good student and I never bother anyone and so this...this...nincompoop! Started bothering me and I was trying my hardest to ignore him because I didn't want to get in trouble but he was being really rude and kept coughing in my ear and tapping my back so finally I confronted him and he said that all he wanted was for _me_to pick up _his _pencil, and all I did was shake my head no, but the teacher saw us and must have thought that I was giving him the answers, because we all know that these kids aren't the school's brightest, but now you know that I didn't do anything and can let me off. Can't you?"

Max slowly turned her head toward Lissa and put all the hatred she could muster into her eyes. Not the school's brightest?! Oh, those were fighting words right there! The headhunter's eyes locked on her and Fang. "Well, that explains hers and Nick's reason for being here. But what about you, Ms. Maxine? Or are you here to try and bail your brother out of trouble?" Max got ready to give a retort, but Fang said, "You're right, I did ask Lissa if she could pick up my pencil. As for my coughing, it's a normal bodily function. Couldn't help it. But as for tapping her on her back. Well, I was considering tapping dat, but after this," Here he sized Lissa up with his eyes in a contemptuous way, "Never." Lissa's eyes grew wide and she started babbling like she was about to tell the headmaster what Fang meant by "tapping dat" but the sound of Max cracking her knuckles stopped her.

"So, we had a class disruption, did we?" The headmaster went on. "Fine. Nick and Lissa, you two have Saturday detention." Their jaws dropped. Lissa composed herself the quickest. "But sir, I didn't do anything! I was doing my test and--" "Boo, bitch!" Max finally said, unable to stop the words from spilling out. "Ms. Maxine, you may join them." The headhunter added. Max stood up quickly, Fang doing so as well. "Fine. Just fine. I'll do your stupid detention. But I think you need to really look into the one you call Little Miss Perfect sitting here." And with that, she stormed out. "See ya Saturday, Headhunter." Fang said, leaving out. "What?" the principal yelled. "Headmaster," Fang corrected over his shoulder with a smirk.

The bell rang in the halls. Thankfully it was to signal the end of the day. With heavy hearts dreading Jeb's reaction to their news, they quickly left the building to go to their meeting spot to wait for the others.

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Okay, so this was completely out of character for Max and Fang, I know! I know James Patterson doesn't really cuss too much in this series of books (though I remember Max telling Iggy something in the second book that strayed pretty far from this path!). Well, drop a comment and tell me what you thought of this! 


	2. Dust in Gazzy's Wind

So, here's chapter two for the books! As I've warned some, this story is still OOC (out of character). Also, the plot is very...unusual, I guess I could describe it as.Still, I hpe you like it! Read it, like it, love it!

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**Dust in Gazzy's Wind**

Max and Fang's announcement of Saturday detention _really _did not sit well with Jeb. First he yelled at them, saying that at their age, caged lives or not, they should know better than to talk to authoritative figures like that. Well, that ended with both of them taking off in flight in the middle of the conversation. Two hours later, they tried to creep back into the house, but Jeb was waiting for them, and they picked up where they left off. Fang found himself praying Iggy would set one of his bombs off. No explosion came.

But salvation did come. In the form of Nudge. "Hey Jeb?" She asked, pulling on his shirt and holding a magazine up to him. "What's a monaushay twa?" His eyes widened and he snatched the magazine away from her and read its cover. _Maxim_."Don't read that nonsense!" He said, throwing it across the room. "How come?" She asked. "Because it's disgusting!" "How come?" She asked again. "Because it's stupid." "But _how come?_" She pressed. Meanwhile, Max and Fang made a break for the exit. Just as Jeb was noticing this, they dashed away and ran up the stairs to their bedrooms, locking the doors behind them. _Bad ass little kids. I really need to teach them some proper ettiquete. _Nudge pulled his shirt again to get his attention. "How come?" She asked. "Nudge, ask me that one more time, and I swear I'll take you back to the School," he said, walking away. She stopped and pondered the seriousness of his statement. Then: "How come?"

-----Next day, Tuesday-----

"More eggs, Ig," Gazzy said to him as he stood next to the blind bird-boy, who effortlessly put the food on his plate. The others were at the table still finishing up their first plates while he had gone back for seconds already, for once beating Nudge. The girl sat next to a very harried-looking Jeb. "And then I was like, no way! And Chelsea was all like, yes way! And then I said, like, shut up! And she's all like, no, you shut up! And I'm all like, flocktastic! And she's all like, what?! And I'm all like _flocktastic! _And she's all like--" "Please shut the hell up. Please." Jeb said, being able to take no more of her one-sided conversation. Angel dropped her toast in shock. "Ooooh! You said a dirty word! Max said we couldn't talk like that!" "And Max isn't the oldest one here, so who you gonna listen to, me or her?" Jeb said. The cup of orange juice in Fang's hand froze on its way to his mouth. "What the hell has gotten into you?" He asked sharply. Angel gasped again. "Fang!" She reproached. He kept staring at Jeb as though he hadn't heard her.

"Look, it's time for you guys to go to school," Jeb dodged Fang's question. "Be good, all of you! I don't want any more reports of trouble making, you hear?" With many grumbles, everyone got up from the table. All except Gazzy. He remained seated and had a look on his face to match the one Max had worn the day earlier to get out of class, but his looked much more authentic. "Gazzy?" She asked, putting a concerned hand on his shoulder. "I think ya'll should go on without me," he said, grabbing his stomach. "Now." She frowned. "No, you're not walking to school on your own, and you can't fly there. Now what's wrong?" He groaned, his stomach giving a loud gurggle. "Go ahead, go. All of you!" He said urgently. "Gazzy, quit playing around. You're gonna make us late," Iggy said to his little cohort in crime. Gazzy looked up with genuine eyes, wishing Iggy could see the seriousness in them. "I'm not playing! Go!" he yelled.

His little sister came to his side. "Want some more chocolate, Gazzy?" She asked him. All eyes were on the chocolate wrapper in her hands. "Angel, where'd you get that?" Fang asked. She shrugged. "Jeb's room." He took it from her and read its label. Ex-lax. Oh no. "I think we better go," Fang whispered, a slight tremble to his voice. "Now. Right now!" he shouted, making a break for the front door. He would never make it. Just then, his prayed-for explosion came, but not from who or where he wanted it to come from. The discharge that Gazzy let loose was enough to shake the entire house. The ceiling over the doorway came crashing down and blocked Fang's escape. The force slammed him into the rubble. Everyone else was knocked down like bowling pins as the wave of methane hit them. Nudge swore she felt the mountainside of which the house sat on shift several inches to the side. The TV in the kitchen flickered for a moment, then the morning news people started scrambling about, pandemonium breaking out. "This just in, it seems the state has been hit with a 5 point earthquake. Take cover immediately, I repeat, take cover immediately!" Then the TV flickered off and stayed off. A quiet descended upon the establishment.

"Whoa!" Gazzy said in an amazed voice. "Let me try that again!" "No!" Five people shouted at once, and one muffled "Hell no!" from Fang, who was buried under the hallway debris. Jeb crawled out from under the table, which had been knocked off its legs. "Angel, give me the Ex-lax." She picked up the candy bar that Fang had dropped. "No one, and I mean no one, eat this, do you understand me? Remember, you guys can eat a whole Chinese buffet on your own and still ask for more. Your digestive systems aren't the same as normal people's. _Especially _Gazzy's." The boy smiled sheepishly. "Aw shucks Jeb, it was nothing." "I know it wasn't!" He said, gesturing to the ruins of the house. He turned around to survey the damage and about had a heart attack, finding Fang standing beside him, not hearing him come back into the room.

"Next time Gazzy tells us to clear the area, let's go," he said quietly, brushing dust off his school uniform. "Yeah, cause he was all like, go, and we were all like, no! And he was like, leave! And we were like--" "We know Nudge," Max said warily. She strode over a window, opened it, and started climbing through. The others followed suit. "Man, won't I have a story for show and tell!" Angel chirped as she climbed out of the house. "Honey, please don't tell anyone at school this," Max said. "Things like that attracts the kind of attention that we don't want." "Oh, like farts that rock the whole state don't?" Iggy said. Max just shrugged her shoulders.

Their clothes were disheveled. Their hair was matted and held pieces of plaster and molding from the house. Dazedly, they stumbled down the path that led to their school, looking more like World War II survivors than school kids. Gazzy stopped for a moment. "What now?" Max asked. "After shock," he said, and let loose again.

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Ah, how very sick of me! And poor Gazzy! Hell, poor Flock! See, told ya it was going to be weird! But review and tell me what you thought of it all! 


	3. Iggy Unleashed

Uh-oh! Looks like trouble! And as I've already warned, there is strong language used here...don't want to see any flames because you have the choice not to read this!

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**Iggy Unleashed!**

Iggy sat in the courtyard waiting for the doors to the school to open so everyone could go in. His "family" had left him, wanting to give him some space when the girl who was currently sitting next to him came over. She seemed nice enough, but he could only imagine the horrified look on her face if she found out he had wings. Speaking of wings, he wished he could take off at the moment. For some reason he was starting to get restless. He shifted uncomfortably on the stone bench, trying to answer all of the girl's, Tess', questions.

"So, you used to live in Virginia, huh? What was that like?" "Well, it was--" She cut him off with another question. "Do you miss there?" "Um, not really because--" "Didn't it bother you to have to leave all of your friends behind?" "Something like that, but--" Just then the bell rang. He popped up like a spring and started heading in the general direction everyone else was going. "Gotta go, see ya...figuratively," he called back to Tess. He didn't want to be rude to the only girl who'd ever talked to him, but he didn't know how to handle himself just yet. He'd subtly slip in a plea for help from Fang the next time he got a chance. And speak of the devil, Fang appeared. Iggy could tell it was him by the way he brushed his arm.

"So, how'd it go with you and your lady friend?" Fang asked. "It was...entertaining, but..." "But?" Fang pressed. "God I wish I could see her!" Iggy said in frustration. "Um, yeah...I'm sure you do..." Iggy felt that there was something not being spoken here. "What, she's ugly or something?" Fang bit his bottom lip and turned his head, though Iggy couldn't see the gesture. "Well, she seems like a very nice girl. She deserves to have happiness in her life too." Now Iggy was very alarmed. "Nick, what's wrong with her? What do you know?" "Um, gotta go, see ya man," Fang said hurriedly and walked to his class, leaving Iggy outside of his.

_What's that supposed to mean? _Iggy wondered, staring off in the direction that he'd heard Fang leave in. "Come on in, Jeff, " The teacher said to him, standing in the doorway. He pushed his friend's words into the back of his mind and went in. The thing about his class that he didn't like was that it was a multiple-use classroom. It served as not only the room for the physically impaired, but the mentally impaired too. At times, when he let his anger get the better of him, he would think about if only the whitecoats hadn't tried to screw with his vision, he'd be so above such assistance. He wouldn't have to be trying to learn sign language (he figured that since he could talk, why would he need it?) next to the little kid who was mentally challenged and could hardly spell his own name. But this was when he let the unfairness of life get to him. Generally, it didn't bother him, at least not on an outside level.

He easily found his way to his desk and fingered the bumpy book on it. Some novel written in Braille. He _had _taken the initiative to learn this, not wanting everything to have to be read out loud to him. This particular book was _Great Expectations, _by Charles Dickenson. The title seemed comical for some reason, he couldn't point out exactly why. _Could it be the great expectations you want in Tess, for her to be the perfect girlfriend? No, no, shut up and quit thinking like that! _Seemed like the alarm bells Fang had set off were still echoing. The teacher came into the classroom and the school day began. They read two chapters of the book, then the teacher gave him an oral study guide to think over. Easy as usual.

Time seemed to want to creep by. Four hours of math, science, language arts, and reading made him even more restless than he was before. That, and once again, Fang's words. Finally, mercifully, the lunch bell rang. This was his favorite and least favorite time. It was his favorite because it was the only chance he got to interact with others outside of his class and see the rest of the flock (figuratively!). It was his least favorite because he felt slightly vulnerable to the cruelties of some of the other school children. Like the time some douche bag put a kick me sign on his back. But Fang was "kind" enough to avenge that for him. He had followed the kid home, then late that night he returned, flying past his window. The boy couldn't see who it was, and who would expect to see flying humans? Fang played the role of God's angel of Death and gave the boy a warning he would never forget. Since then, things had been pretty quiet for him.

He allowed himself to get swept up by the tide of kids heading toward the cafeteria. A tiny brush against him announced Gazzy's appearance. "Didn't you already eat lunch?" Iggy asked him. "Yeah," Gazzy said, "But I'm still hungry." Iggy sighed. He hated doing Max's work, but something had to be said. "Gazzy, you can't just cut class whenever you feel like it. There's rules here. You're gonna be marked tardy and if you get too many tardys, you'll get detention." "Uh-uh, they don't give detentions to little kids. We get paddled." Gazzy seemed confident in his knowledge. Iggy turned his face toward the boy's voice and raised an eyebrow. "And that's supposed to be better how?" "Because, I'll still have my Saturday," Gazzy said simply. Iggy sighed again. There was just no way of arguing with the kid. His mind was set.

They got their trays and Gazzy led them to a secluded table near the back. He dug into his food as though he hadn't just eaten an hour ago, making small talk with his friend. Until Iggy felt a wet blob hit his head. He turned, but of course couldn't see anything. The kid who threw the food at him waved his hand in his face, making sure he couldn't see them, then flipped him the middle finger. "I don't think you have a license to fly that," Gazzy said heatedly and grabbed a stale bread roll off of Iggy's tray and threw it at the boy. The hard texture caused his head to snap sideways. The kid grabbed a handful of overcooked spaghetti and chucked it in their direction. "Duck!" Gazzy said, but too late. It landed on Iggy pants. That was the final straw.

Whirling around, Iggy whipped the entire tray, food and all, in the direction that the assault was coming from. He grinned when he heard someone give a whimper of pain. But the voice was wrong. This was a girl. And not any girl, but Tess. "Jeff Texas Ranger Walker!" She shouted. Iggy had only told her that that was his full name playfully. Was this girl dunce? Maybe this was what Fang had tried to warn him about. But he had no time to consider this. He felt her slam a fistful of Jell-O in his face. He stuck out his tounge. Lime. His least favorite flavor. The levies holding his temper in check broke and out spilled what could be considered as a new Iggy. He gave a primordial cry and started running furiously. He tackled Tess, the boy who had started this fiasco, and several others, including one guy who said, "Man, you really should try out for the football team, you'd make a great line-backer!" before he too was overcome by Iggy's fury.

He didn't come to a stop until he hit a wall. He could tell that the original boy was still near him. Iggy grabbed him and slammed him to the ground. Reaching for anything available, Iggy grabbed a plastic spoon and went to work on the boy's face. "You...stupid...sonova...biscuit eater...picking...on the blind kid...thought it was going...to be a...one sided fight, didn't you?" Iggy panted and he continually brought his spoon down on him. He paused to catch his breath and could feel the boy trying to crawl away. "Have mercy!" he was shouting. He fumbled in his shirt and produced rosary beads. Iggy could hear the beads jingle. What?! Then the boy began to speak in what could only be assumed as Tounges, but Iggy was beyond caring at this point. He started stabbing him again with the spoon.

"Speaking...your...funny language...like some terrorist...wearing your stupid turbans...--" "But I'm not Middle Eastern!" The boy screamed between stabs. "And I'm not Rocky, but you seemed to deem it appropriate enough to fight me!" And on the attack went. Until a hushed silence fell in the room. Iggy's panting and the boy's screaming were the only things that could be heard. Then Iggy felt a rough hand pull him off the kid. "To my office. Now, Mr. Walker!" The principal yelled. Like Max and Fang, he didn't like to be yelled at. He tried to escape, but was surprised by the strength of which this hand had. It dragged him down the hall and into a small room, which was the front office. Then, down another hall and into another room, this one dimly lit. Iggy could tell by the coolness of everything, the lack of warm lighting from a window.

The principal paced in front of him. "How could you? How could you beat up a poor, defenseless boy like that? With a weapon no less?" Iggy froze. "What?! If anything, _I_was the "poor, defenseless" boy! Hell, I'm blind!" "I don't want to hear any excuses, Mr. Walker!" The principal said harshly. "Excuses?! Sure, I want to fake being blind _for what reason?_" Iggy said heatedly. Mr. Walton waved his hand to dismiss his question, but Iggy didn't see it. "You deliberately attacked another student, is that right?" "No, I tripped, fell, landed on him with a spoon in my hand," came the sarcastic reply. "So you admit to starting this fight?" "What? No! He started it! He--" "Mr. Frasier comes from a very well-bred family and would never stoop down to such behavior." The headmaster said matter-of-factly, as though this explained anything. "They're also big donators to the school." _So that's why you're riding their dick so hard? _Iggy thought, having just an edge on Max with his mouth.

"On the other hand, you and your...family," Mr. Walton went on, emphasizing on "family" with a disgusted tone, "Don't necessarily have a clean record." He sat down, leafed through some papers, and started writing. "He stared it," Iggy tried again, but was shushed. "Just be a man and accept your punishment with some dignity." He finished with what he was writing and held it out for Iggy to take. He didn't cause he couldn't see it. He waved a hand in front of Iggy's face, as though trying to get his attention, and Iggy flicked him off. The headmaster grabbed the hand and shoved the paper in it. "Along with your brother and sister, you too have detention Saturday. Now go before I have you expelled." Running out of words for his defense, he got up and cautiously felt his way out of the office and back into the main hall.

"So, what happened?" Was the first words said to him by a small voice. Gazzy. "I got Saturday detention because of this stupid shit!" Iggy yelled furiously. Then he turned on Gazzy. "And where were you? You're the one who started the food fight!" "I left. Lest I blow the school to Kingdom Come." Gazzy said. Iggy growled in frustration and headed toward the front doors. Looked like Jeb would have an early visitor.

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Getting a little heated here, aren't the characters? But I like them being a little more grown-up. Anyways, please review! 


	4. Force Feeding

Chapter four up and running! As always, enjoy!**  
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**Force Feeding**

Jeb looked at the piece of paper that Iggy had given him and sighed. "Did you not pay attention to what I said before you left for school? I said be good because I don't want any more of you to get detention. So, why is it that my three oldest, the ones who should know how to behave, have all wound up with detention?" Jeb looked hurt, but Iggy couldn't care less; he was seething still. "And you also can't just leave school at any time you want!" Jeb added. "You still have three classes left, and it's worth being suspended if you're caught skipping." Iggy gave his own sigh and forced himself to have the control that Max and Fang lacked.

"I'm not going back," Iggy said from his place on top of the roof where he'd jumped up to hand Jeb the paper. Jeb was trying to repair the damage that Gazzy had caused. "You're not going back as in, you're not going back today or as in you quit for good?" Jeb asked. "For good," Iggy told him, picking up a 2x4 and handing it to him when he'd stopped hammering, figuring he needed it because he was done with the other one. He was, and took the board with quiet gratification and wonderment that he could discern such things. "Ig, I know school's hard, trust me, I had to go way before you did and long after the age you are now. Hell, I also had college! But I didn't quit, I didn't give up, I didn't let the unfairness of people get to me. You too need to push past this adversity because you have the ability to become something great if you just persevere."

Iggy put his hands in his pockets, stared blindly at the ground below for a moment, then rose his eyes to where they actually met Jeb's. "Jeb, I gotta tell you, you and I both know that's a load of bull shit. You never went to college. You never even finished high school. Just you and a bunch of friends came up with this "wonderful" and I do mean _wonderful _idea to experiment on other human beings with the DNA of animals. I suppose you're still waiting on your Nobel prize, huh?" Jeb stopped hammering and glared at him. "James Griffith, don't you dare--" Iggy didn't wait to hear the rest. At the mention of his real name, he took to the sky, rising as quickly as he could without having a running start.

His natural sense of direction led him to his secret hiding spot, which really wasn't even that far from the house. It was a cave on the other side of the mountain, but it was secluded by some pine trees way up there. No one, not Max, Fang, or even Gazzy knew it was there. He flew in a tight circle, then landed at the entrance. He sat down, feeling the sun slowly wane and trying to get his emotions under control.

-----Later that day-----

Max sat down on the school steps, searching the crowd of kids spilling out of the doors for the rest of the flock. She saw Angel, who obediently went to her, waving some kind of picture she drew in front of her. Max wasn't paying attention at the moment. Where was everyone else? Nudge came out next, then Gazzy. She checked her watch. Something was wrong. They all should have been walking home by now. Fang finally appeared, a blonde girl on one arm and a brunette on the other. Fang looked uncomfortable with them latching on to him as they were, losing his faith in normal girls after Lissa. "Um, I gotta go home. My..._father_--" he forced himself to say, "Gets mad if I don't come home right after school." The girls looked at him with an incredulous stare. "Do you always do what daddy says?" The blonde asked. Fang didn't understand her point. "Yes," he said seriously. They burst out laughing. "Come on, let's leave this daddy's boy," The girls said and walked off with a swagger. Fang didn't fully understand what had just happened, but he knew that he'd probably went down a notch in the social ladder.

Max rushed up to him. "Where's Iggy? I thought you always picked him up from his class." "First off, Iggy's old enough to find his own way here," Fang corrected her, walking down the road that led home. "Second off, he can you-know-what," he whispered, just in case they were being watched. Max grabbed his shirt and pulled his face very close to hers. "So Erasers aren't a threat? Yeah, he's also old enough to take on them by himself?" She released him and started pacing back and forth. "Oh God, what if they did catch him? What if he's in grave danger and needs our help? He's probably cold and hungry and trapped in the dark somewhere--" "I don't think that matters considering he's blind!" Fang said sharply. "Get a hold of yourself!"

"Iggy went home," Gazzy said just then. All eyes snapped to him. "What? When?" Max said, kneeling down and holding the boy by his shirt to where he was only a few inches from her face. "Like around lunchtime. Something about calling some kid a terrorist. Oh, and he got a recommendation to join the football team too!" Angel stared at him for a moment, then said, "Iggy has Saturday detention." Gazzy threw a nasty look at his sister. "What do you know? I didn't say that! I didn't even think that!" "Actually, your very thought was, 'Max and Fang caught it hard, I wonder what he's going to say to him?' It told all I needed to know." Gazzy's eyes widened. He never thought his own sister would read his mind.

"Lucky guess," he muttered. But then a strange feeling over came him. "You will give me your dessert tonight," Angel said in a very serious tone. Gazzy tried to fight it, but couldn't. "I will give you my dessert tonight," he repeated like some kind of clone. "You will also clean I and Nudge's room," she added. "I will clean I and Nudge's room," he said. She frowned at this, but released him from the mental hold she had had on him. "Whoa, Angel," Nudge said surprised. "That's basically like the Jedi mind trick." Angel turned to her. "You will will me your powers," she said in a dark voice. Nudge looked like she was trying to fight back. "I...will...will...you...nothing!" She yelled, breaking the bond. Angel looked like she was going to try it again, but Max stopped her, pulling her away from Nudge so their eyes, which started the connection, wouldn't meet. "This isn't _The Covenant,_ Angel, quit trying to steal Nudge's abilities."

By that time, they had reached the house. There on top of it was Jeb, still working. Fang rolled up his sleeves and went to help. The other's set down their stuff and helped too. Around dusk, the house was nearly finished, all that needed to be done was a paint job and the roof needed shingles. Max had stopped earlier than the others to cook dinner (the fried chicken coming out the color and density of a hockey puck) and wished Iggy was there to have done it instead. Jeb and the rest came in for the night. "Go find your brother," he said to her. She angrily snatched off her apron. She was pissed. It wasn't her job to play babysitter. Yes, she loved them all and watched over them, but Iggy knew better than to stay out so long.

She ran and flew in the air, trying to use her keen eyesight to spot him. Three times she circled the property, hoping he'd hidden somewhere near. When that failed, she went up higher to search the nearby town without being seen from the ground. He had no money to go into any stores, and with his tall stature, he'd be easily noticed by an Eraser. She hoped he wasn't that stupid. Then, the sound of breathing reached her ears. It wasn't from any animal she knew of except one: human-bird hybrids. She banked her wings, gliding down toward the sound and ended up coming to land on a ledge of the mountain.

Curled up asleep at the mouth of a cave was Iggy. All her fury from that day (and the day before, if truth were to be told) built up in her and she gave the boy a very hard kick to the nads. "Oh, that's a cheap shot!" He gasped in pain. "Serves you right! Why the hell did you leave school so early? Why'd you stay out so late? And how in the hell did you get detention?" Iggy was in too much pain to answer her, but she didn't wait for an answer anyways. She grabbed his shirt and threw him over the side of the mountain, forcing him to start flying unless he'd splat on the ground below. She followed closely behind, chewing him all the way home.

"I've never seen such carelessness! I can't believe you'd do something like that! And then you got in a fight at school? Oh, Ig, no! In-cog-nito! Doesn't that mean anything to anybody?" They walked through the front door with her _still _fussing. "Just because Fang and I got detention doesn't mean it's okay for you to go and get it too," She went on. "I mean, you're setting a bad example for the younger ones. Gazzy really looks up to you and here you are, getting in to it with the principal and all. You really need to get your priorities straight and--" "Max, I know!"Iggy finally yelled at her. Fang started clapping his hands. "Thank you Iggy! I tried to tell her the same thing, but Mother Max doesn't want to hear any of that!" Fang didn't like picking on Max like that, but in a strange way, it made him feel a little better, since he was so ashamed of himself for having got in trouble at school.

Max opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but just sat down and started eating, started being the key word. She never finished. She stared at the chicken, then poked it dismally. "You bring shame to our ancestors," Fang said kiddingly, trying to make up for his meanness. "You were born of a spotted hen that your father raised. She is displeased with the way you have charred her." It didn't work. She put her face in her hands and gave a frustrated cry, leaving the table. Nudge slowly slide her food to the floor for the dog, Total, to eat. "Good, I didn't want to say it while she was here, but this mess is inedible. And just look at the corn! The can said it was whole kernel, but it came out creamed! How do you mess up on canned corn?"

"Oh, it's not that bad Nudge," Angel said in a falsely bright voice, not wanting to hurt Max's feelings even if she wasn't there. She took a bite of the whole-kernel creamed corn and threw up. "Oh man, never mind!" She said, wiping her mouth off on her napkin. Total, finished with Nudge's food, went and licked her puddle of sick up._ It's no different than what I do to my own, _he thought. "Who ever let Max cook should be slapped," Iggy said, once again angry. "Oh, she wouldn't have had to if you had come home," Jeb said matter of factly. Iggy wasn't trying to hear any more lectures. He beat a hurried escape to his room. Everyone else left too to prepare for bed.

Jeb sat alone, rubbing his temples at the day's events. Suddenly he felt something on his foot. He looked down and saw Total staring up at him. "Don't make me beg," the dog said, looking up at the plate of "food" on the table. Jeb sighed and gave it to him. "Hey, if you guys are gonna give me your whole plates, Max _should_ cook more often!" Jeb shook his head and got up. "Despite that you're a dog, sometimes I feel that you're the only one who understands me Total." He went upstairs, leaving the dog behind. "Yeah, whatever. I'm just here for the food." And he started to lap up some half-boiled mashed potatoes.

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Yes, even Fang has said that Max should leave the cooking to Iggy! Shame, shame...anyways, stay tuned for next chapter to find out who's next to get detention! Now please, do me and yourself a favor and review. I heard that it does wonders in cleansing the soul! 


	5. Relaxed and Natural?

The title is part of the name of a shampoo, so I'll just say that I do not claim Panteen or any other hair products. I'm not into marketing, except marketing my free fanficts to the beautiful public! Now enjoy!

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**Relaxed and Natural?**

"Nudge? Nudge? NUDGE!" Someone was yelling her name but it seemed too distant to be answered. A rough hand shook her and her eyes opened slowly. "What?" She asked sleepily. "It's time to get up," Max said from beside her bed (a rhyme!). Nudge groaned and tried to roll over and go back to sleep. Max grabbed the covers and ripped them away from her. "Come on, get up. There's something that I want to try before you go to school." She shook again for good measure, then left. Nudge looked at the alarm clock. It was six thirty. Usually they didn't get up till around seven thirty. She gave another loud groan and was very tempted to go back to sleep. But that'd only be prolonging the inevitable, for Max _would_have her way!

She slipped in her Tweety bird slippers and padded downstairs, where Max was sitting at the kitchen table. Jeb too was there, drinking a very early cup of coffee. "So what's this all about?" Nudge asked. Max held up a box in front of her and said, "I want to try this out real quick before you go to school." Nudge came closer and read the box: Just For Me hair relaxer. She turned disbelieving eyes to Max. "You're not really about to put that on me, are you? What do you know about hair?" Max started puffing up in indignation, the embarrassment of last night's dinner still fresh on her mind. "Look, other girls, um, like you, do it, so I think you should too." Nudge blinked. "Since when have I been like other girls?" Max just grabbed her arm and forcefully sat her in a chair.

She opened the box and pulled out everything, setting it neatly on the table. She picked up the instructions and read them quietly to herself. Nudge was just about to fall back asleep, when Max jerked her head back up. "Okay, so I think I just do this," and she started messing with some of the products, "And this," and mixed a few things together. Now Nudge was fully awake. "Wait, what do you mean you _think_?" "Well, it's what the instructions say," Max said, showing her where she was reading. She put on a pair of clear plastic gloves and picked up something that looked like a tounge depressor. "So, I guess I'm supposed to use this to apply it," She muttered to herself, turning the stick in her hand. Nudge sat up even straighter. "You _guess?!_" "Oh, Nudge, don't worry! The instructions are right here. What can go wrong?"

Max applied the relaxer and Nudge obediently sat there, crossing her fingers and praying to whoever could hear her silent thoughts that Max wouldn't mess up. Not that she knew what messing up would mean, but she didn't want to find out. After her entire head was covered with the product, she got up and check herself out in the stainless steel toaster. Her entire head was white, as though sour cream had been smothered all over her. "So, how long is this supposed to stay on?" She asked Max. Max consulted the instructions again. "Well, they said it depended on the hair texture. I'd guess around twenty five minutes for you."

Time went by slowly, the house quiet except for an occasional a low rumble upstairs. Gazzy must've still been feeling the effects of the ex-lax. Suddenly, Nudge's head started to feel a little hot. She figured it was because she was heating up due to wearing very warm pajamas and a thick robe as well, and thought nothing of it. Until the burning persisted. She started fanning herself, figuring it'd go away. Still it didn't! "Uh, Max? Is this stuff supposed to burn?" She started to lose her patience as she waited for Max to look up anything about burning. And in bold letters at the bottom of the page, she read, "RINSE IMMEDIATLY IF A BURNING SENSATION OCCURS!" Nudge didn't need to be told twice; her head felt like it was on fire!

Quickly she ducked under a cool stream of water from the kitchen sink. But it didn't help much. The water added a sting to the burn and Nudge tried her best not to whimper. Max came over to help, and it took everything in Nudge to keep herself from snapping at her. Max was only trying to be a good "older sister" but this was definitely not one of their sisterly moments. After all of the relaxer was washed out, she rung her hair and Max handed her a towel that was on the back of a chair. She dried off carefully, not wanting to harm herself. "That...was...torture..." She said. Back to the instructions Max went. "Hm, strange. Only fifteen minutes had gone by, you should have been fine. Oh, wait, here's something. Had you recently scratched you head?" Nudge had done so the whole way down the stairs and said so. "Ah, that's why. You can't irritate your scalp before relaxing it or you'll risk a chemical burn. I guess that's what just happened to you."

Nudge check herself in the toaster again. Everything seemed fine, but the front part of her head still burned slightly. Max called her over to finish, and still obediently, she followed. Twenty minutes later, they were done. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Nudge just grumbled. Soon the others were awake, and they could hear the morning ritual of Iggy and Fang fighting (literally!) about who got to use the bathroom first. Iggy complained that since he was blind, it'd be more convenient for him to go first. Fang argued that if Iggy went first, he wouldn't have enough time to spike his hair the way he liked it (learning this from an impromptu make-over that he had received in New York). In the end, hardly ever did either of them win, and today, Angel was the first to shower.

A/N: Actually, if I remember this correctly, Iggy was the one with the spiked hair. Let's just go with the idea that Fang's hair was done the same way, okay?

During breakfast, Angel was the chatterbox while Iggy and Gazzy talked quietly. Nudge tried to listen to Angel, but her mind kept wandering to her hair, and Max and Fang seemed to be immersed with having staring contests with each other. Fang kept winning because Max would blush and look away. Jeb didn't seem to notice this, keeping his eyes on the newspaper before him. Then suddenly, Angel stopped talking and stared at Nudge. "Um, Nudge? H-how old are you again?" Nudge narrowed her eyes in confusion. "I'm eleven. At least I _think _I'm eleven. That's how old Max says I am. Why?" Angel shifted nervously in her chair. "Because, I-I'm afraid that you're _expiring._" The room fell silent.

"What do you mean?" Nudge asked, fear creeping into her voice. "Max, Fang, and Iggy are older than me. How can I expire before them?" "Well, your hair is falling out," Angel said, pointing to Nudge's head. Nudge reached a hand up and pulled down a handful of hair. She gave several loud gasps, then screamed. "Nooooooooo! Max, what'd you do to me?!" She yelled. "I followed everything just as it said!" Max yelled back, frantically flipping through the manual. Nudge ran her hand through her hair again. More hair came out. Another scream. Iggy turned his face to Fang who's expression matched his. _Was_Nudge expiring?Jeb tapped a spoon against his coffee mug to get some order in the room.

"I know that you must be freaked out by your loss of hair, Nudge, but I think this is due to a simple mistake. Or..." "Or?!" Nudge asked frantically. "Or... it could be the fact that you're not fully human. I mean, what would happen if you tried to relax the feathers of a bird?" "Gee, I don't know, but I'm sure you could tell us," Iggy said, still angry with Jeb. "How about we test that out on you?" Jeb shot back. "I wouldn't put it past you to try," Iggy sneered. Jeb opened his mouth to say something else, but just then Gazzy expelled his own air, but a much calmer version than what happened the day before. Jeb closed his mouth quickly. "Oh God, I think I can taste it!" He gagged, fanning his hand in front of him. Gazzy smirked.

"Good, maybe I should do that more often if it keeps everyone from fighting." He turned to Nudge and said, "It doesn't look that bad, Nudge. Just crochet some more hair on, and no one will know." Nudge gave him a look that could kill. "Yeah, sure, fake hair. Real nice. Or, even better, hair that belonged to someone else! Fantastic, yeah I'm sure nobody would know the difference." Angel had been quiet for a moment, then said, "You know, they use fake hair to make wigs for some kids who have cancer. Just say you have leukemia." Fang frowned at her. "No Angel, that's not even right. I mean, to fake to have a terminal illness, well, that's just--" "Brilliant!" Nudge said quickly. "Yeah, that'll explain everything, then people will start being really nice to me and stuff and--" "Nudge, no." Max said firmly. "Fang's right--" "As usual," Gazzy mumbled, but in Fang's voice. Max glared at him and he stared innocently back, not understanding her sudden anger at him. She shook her head and blew it off.

"Anyways, faking having cancer would be pretty low. Maybe if you just combed you hair like this," She tried to rearrange Nudge's hairstyle, but the girl wouldn't let her this time. "No! Can't you see you've fucked up my hair enough?" She got up from the table, snatched her backpack up from the main hall, and ran out the door. Max sighed and went to retrieve her own backpack. Angel got up to follow her. The boys looked at each other (yeah, even Iggy!), then got up to, except so said. He remained seated, eating his breakfast like nothing had happened. "Iggy, please don't tell me you also ate some laxative?" Max said worriedly. Fang straightened up and got into a position as though he was ready to run in a second's notice. He be damned if the house crushed him this time! But Iggy said, "No, I told Jeb I quit school yesterday. I'm not going." Jeb only rolled his eyes and let Max handle this one.

"Iggy, you can't quit school at your age. You're only fourteen, you have to be at least sixteen before you can do that. Then, without an education, what are you going to do with you life? Being a mutant doesn't pay the bills you know. And most people who quit school turn to a life of crime and corruption and I don't want to see you like that because I know you can be so much more, and--" "Okay Mother Teresa! I get it!" Iggy said, now getting up. Max smiled. She wasn't a nagger, but if it worked, use it. Jeb smiled his own thanks from behind the newspaper.

They ran out the door to try to catch up with Nudge, but she was no where to be found. Max guessed that she had flown to school. "I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen today," Iggy said. Max shoved him in the chest. "If you've just jinxed us Iggy, I'll revoke your flock membership card." Against her own orders, she rose to the sky, hoping to reach Nudge before she got to school and unleashed her rage on the school's populace.

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Well, that's that! Nothing more to say here (once again it's getting late and I have mid-terms to do...I've already accepted he fact that I'm about to fail the one in advanced math...!). Do your thing and review! 


	6. Naughty Nudge

Ah, her time of reckoning is upon her! Let's see how this all goes down! And at fans requests, I tried to tone down Nudge's mouth a bit, but I've made no promises as to the older members of the flock. Read it, like it, love it, review it!

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**Naughty Nudge**

_-----Wednesday morning-----_

Nudge ran into the school building and went straight to the bathroom. No one was in there, so she stared at her image in the first mirror she got to. Her hair had been falling out at the temples, the areas that had received the worst burns. She gave a frustrated cry and punched the mirror. She tried pulling her hair up and parting it this way and that, but still those bald spots were noticeable. She took a deep breath. _Okay Monique. You can do this. Make light of the situation. Tell them that you got into it with a buzz saw or something. I mean, it's just hair. It'll grow back. _She gave a weak smile at her own optimism and left the bathroom in a better mood.

She was the first to her class, not wanting to wait out in the courtyard for the bell to ring. The room was empty, so she sat down at her desk and started doing the work that was already on the board which was the D.O.L. or daily oral language, nothing more than correcting improper sentences. She was so immersed with her work that she didn't notice when everyone else started to come in. Done before all the others, she pulled out a compact mirror and started applying a bit of lip gloss, one of the very few make-up products that Max let her wear.

After the assigned twenty minutes to do the problems were up, the teacher called on one of them to go to the board and fix it. Nudge immediately raised her hand. If she participated early, hopefully the teacher wouldn't call on her later in the day. "Tiffany-Crystal would you like to--" She faltered as she took in Nudge's appearance. "Um, you know, uh--" "Yes I would!" Nudge said cheerfully to her, ignoring the obvious eyes on her hair. She took the chalk from the stunned teacher's hand and went to the board. Her back started to tingle as she corrected the sentence, knowing that people were talking about her. That was one of the downfalls of having strong hearing: you heard everything, even some things that you wish you hadn't. But when she put the chalk down and turned back to the class, she had the same smile that she'd worn before, as though she was clueless to the stares.

And so on were students called up until all the sentences were correct. The next thing they did was that each person had to bring in a newspaper clipping of a current event. Nudge had dutifully done hers. Once again, she was the first up. "My current event took place in New York. During the dinner hour of a very prestigious restaurant, six children had ordered a meal that seemed to outweigh their bank accounts. When the manager was summoned, he told them that they should leave the restaurant because their "shananagins" were not going to be accepted. The kids then stood up, kicked the food off the table, and took off in flight!" Nudge paused to let this sink in. "Then they terrorized the rest of the diners by bombing them with food. They eventually flew out of a top window. The question that has yet to be answered is whether this is real or a hoax."

"Well of course it's a hoax!" Some girl said with a snobbish, know-it-all attitude. Nudge had despised her from the first day of school. "This happened in New York. Who's to say it wasn't just part of movie or some stupid stunt? I mean, people can't _actually_ fly!" "Yes they can!" Nudge shouted before she realized what she was doing. Everyone looked at her like she was on drugs. "I mean, hypothetically speaking...what if a person was drafted with avian DNA at a young age to where it mixed with the human DNA? Their body would've gotten used to the avian DNA since the body was still developing. They could've inherited bird traits such as, oh, I don't know, strong hearing, sharp eyesight, and wings." The other girl stared at her with an unblinking glare. "Don't tell me you actually believe that could really happen." "Yeah, I do!" Nudge was getting heated. She was a living example of this! But of course, she couldn't say that. "Who's to say it's not possible?" Nudge said. "Who's to say it is?" The girl said back. Nudge was readying another retort when another idea struck her. "Fine. You have your opinions, and I have mine. Let's just agree to disagree."

The teacher clapped her hands in enthusiasm. "Well resolved, Tiffany! I think we could all learn a lesson from--" "Tiffany-Crystal," Nudge corrected her. "What?" The teacher asked. "My name. It's Tiffany-Crystal. Not just Tiffany." "What a stupid name," Nudge heard the other girl whisper to her friend. _Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, _Nudge chanted to herself. She was not going to do anything that would land her in detention. She was going to set the example for the younger members of the flock!

Time seemed to fly by for Nudge, and she believed she owed it to her naturally up-beat attitude. School seemed to have just begun before the bell for the end of the day loomed nearer. It was last hour that the teacher stood at the front to make an announcement. "As you all know, it's another student's turn to take Spike home with them for the day! Now, I'll draw a name and that person will be our lucky winner!" Spike was the class cactus. He sat on a windowsill and had small pink flowers blooming on it. Beside it sat Snap, Crackle, and Pop, the Venus fly traps. Rarely ever did anything fly into the room for them to eat, so it was someone else's responsibility to feed them by hand. For the most part, nobody really took them home with them. Which was just fine with Nudge; she didn't think she could stand hand-feeding flies to a Venus fly trap.

"Tiffany-Crystal!" The teacher called out. Nudge jumped in her seat. Her name had never been called before. "Congratulations! You get to take Spike home with you! And as a bonus for being so good today, you also can take Snap, Crackle, and Pop too!" The girl's heart fell. "Wait, I have to take all four? But why doesn't anyone else take them?" The teacher gave her a mocking reproachful stare. "Oh, but you're so good with science! You're perfect for the job. I trust that you'll take care of all of them. It's only for a day. You'll be fine! Oh, and you mind looking after Stickly for me as well? He hasn't had much time to be out." Stickly was the class stick bug, another no-take-homer. Nudge felt sick. "How am I supposed to carry all of that?" She asked in a weak voice. "Your brothers and sisters! I'm quite sure they'll help you!"

The potted plants and the bug's aquarium were placed on her desk. Nudge didn't see anything at first until she pressed her face to the glass. Then a thin stick-like figure moved right in front of her eyes! She screamed and in a quick reflex, she swept the aquarium off her desk. It crashed to the floor, the top popping open. Nudge couldn't help the imagine of the bug climbing up her pants leg and jumped up, slapping at herself in fear. Now the class was _really_staring at her. "Um, I'm okay. Just, uh, doing a dance I learned in drama! That's all! I'm fine." Then someone else screamed. The teacher. "Where's Stickly? Did anyone see him?" Everyone got down on the floor to help look for the bug, but that's not where it was.

Nudge felt that it was fate for her to find the damn critter. It had climbed back up onto the desk again, and had started climbing Spike. The class scrambled to get to Stickly, but they were too slow. Spike was next to Snap, Crackle, and Pop. The three fly traps snapped at the stick bug at the same time, but all three took in a spike from Spike as well. Only Snap got the bug, closing it in its petals, killing the bug and itself at the same time. The other two plants simultaneously died, wilting over onto the desk top. A murder and three suicides.

The teacher crept slowly closer, hoping that they were alright. "Stickly? Snap, Crackle, Pop?" She prodded the plants. Snap opened its petals to reveal a half dissolved Stickly. The kids screamed and some fought with each other to reach the trash can to vomit. "You killed them!" The girl that Nudge couldn't stand screamed. "You monster! You absolute monster!" Had Nudge not been a mutant bird-kid, she probably wouldn't have taken this comment so personally. As it was, the girls' words hurt. She gave the girl a hard shove that sent her flying Power Ranger style across the room. She hit the wall where coats could be hung and was lost in the fabrics.

The teacher had seen it, but was too busy mourning her lost pets. "Oh, Stickly! Poor, poor Snap, Crackle, and Pop! We weren't good enough for you!" Then she turned cold eyes on Nudge. "You..! You abomination! You desecrater of good! You bringer of evil! Look what you have done! Go! Leave! Headmasters office! Now!" She babbled, rage consuming her. Nudge grabbed her things and quickly scurried from the room. Down the hall, she turned to see the teacher cradling Crackle's pot to her chest and sobbing. "Don't worry my babies, we'll make sure you're put to rest properly._" Iss-ues_, Nudge thought, but kept going.

She wasn't stupid enough to actually go to the headmasters office. The last bell rang as she headed toward the front doors and like always, she met up with the rest of the flock. "So, um, how'd school go?" Max asked her tentatively. Nudge just shrugged. "Ah, it was school. You know, killed a couple of plants or three and a stick bug to boot. You know, the usual." Now the flock were thinking that she had went over the edge! "Oh yeah, my teacher called me the bringer of evil and sent me to the office." "Nudge, no!" Max said, eyes wide in fear. "What'd he say?" Nudge shrugged again. "I dunno, I didn't go." They smirked and Fang high-fived her. "That's our girl! Stick it to the man!" Nudge suddenly turned to him. "Yeah, I've heard a lot of other people of color saying that. What exactly does that mean?" Now Fang looked at Max, who shook her head in warning.

"Um, don't worry about that," Fang said, turning his head away from her and absorbing himself with staring at the trees. Another shrug from Nudge. She didn't tell Jeb what had happened, but she didn't need to. He received a call an hour after they got home. He went into the living room where she was watching TV. Standing in the doorway he said, "I got a phone call from the school. Something about you killing some plants and bugs. Your teacher is threatening to call the Humane Society on you. The principal was finally able to dissuade her not to...that is, as long as you were given Saturday detention. He seemed to be quite amused with the fact that four out of the six of you have landed there. Nudge, would you like to explain this situation to me?" "Not really, Jeb," Nudge said, never taking her eyes from the TV.

He sighed, stepped over to the TV and turned it off. "You're grounded. You, Iggy, Fang and Max," he added, sweeping his gaze over the rest of the flock." Then he left. The three oldest ones looked at each other. "Shit, I don't know the meaning of grounded," Fang said boldly and turned back on the TV. Jeb had the remote in his hands, and from the kitchen table, he turned it off. Fang turned it back on. Instead of turning it off, Jeb got up, unplugged it, and chucked it out the front door where it smashed on the ground. "Now try to turn it on," He said to Fang. They sat in silence for a while, then Fang said, "Well, Igs, come and show me how to make a bomb. I got a few targets in mind." He cast a dark look in Jeb's direction. Gazzy followed them.

Nudge sat back and sighed. Saturday detention? Her? "If I ever touch a plant or a bug again, it will be too soon," She said, and slumped off to her room.

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Wow, I made the chapter a lot longer than I'd expected! Now press that little button on the bottom and give me the 411 of your opinions as to how you did/didn't like this! 


	7. Shattered Realities, Broken Dreams

Fang's perspective get's a little haywire here! Maybe he'll need counseling!

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**Shattered Realities, Broken Dreams**

(Name of a poem I just did! And a very good one too, if I say so myself!)

The boys were in Iggy's room, watching as he broke his own TV to get the wires from the back of it. "Take the yellow wire and twist it to the blue wire," He instructed Gazzy. The boy demonstrated what Iggy wanted, then handed the strands to Fang. Fang twisted them as asked. "Okay, now get me Jeb's cell phone." Fang blinked rapidly and looked at him. "Wait, what?" "Yeah, we need a detonator. A cell phone is perfect," Iggy told him. "Look, I was just playing. You're not really about to blow this bomb up on anything, are you?" Fang asked him. Both Iggy and Gazzy stared at him with annoyed expressions. "Fang, are you chickening out? Last time I checked, you were the one who wanted to learn this."

Fang narrowed his eyes back at them. "That was my anger talking. You know people can say things they don't mean when they're angry. But this, this is going too far." Gazzy rolled his eyes at him. "And to think I thought you were cool," He said contemptuously. "I don't care if you think I'm cool or not. I'm trying to keep you guys out of trouble--" "Hell, you're one to talk!" Iggy said harshly. "And back at you!" Fang yelled, getting up and storming out. "Jeeeeeb! Iggy's making another bomb and they're planning on using your cell phone as the detonator!" Fang yelled through the house.

In her own room with Nudge and Angel on her bed, Max's head snapped up. "Fang, no!" "He broke code!" Nudge wailed. "All that talk about sticking it to the man, and he just ratted one of us out!" Angel turned frightened eyes to Max. "Max, what are we gonna do?" Max wiped her own expression of shock off her face and straightened up. "I know what we'll do." She got up from the bed and went down the hall to Fang's room, where he had retreated. The door was locked, but she kicked it down. "Oh, so now we're doing B&E's on my bedroom, huh?" He said dryly. "Fang, we need to talk." Max said, crossing the room, followed by all the rest of the flock, Iggy and Gazzy joining them.

They placed themselves in a semi-circle around his bed, all standing with their arms crossed. "What is this, an interrogation?" "I wish it was that simple, Fang. Unfortunately, you've added more to the story." Iggy said. "This is a betrayal," Angel said, the hurt evident in her voice. "Spell betrayal," Fang said, not looking at any of them but a small hand-held game system. "You!" Angel shot back. He paused and looked up at her, shook his head, then went back to the game. Gazzy walked over and snatched it from him, throwing it on the floor hard enough for it to break. Okay, now he was pissed. "What do you want?" he asked angrily.

"We want to know why you snitched your own kind out," Nudge said, snapping her fingers and rolling her head. "I was protecting them!" Fang said defensively. "Iggy's blind! Why the hell is he making bombs? And letting an eight year old help him?! Besides, we all know that sometimes they can go overboard with their experiments. Remember back in May when they built, what'd they call it? Oh yeah, Big Boy? That blew up someone's cabin! Jeb had to pay for that!" "Since when have you given a damn for Jeb?!" Iggy shouted, stunned that Fang would even say something like that.

"Jeb's cared for us for the past four years. We owe it to him for our freedom," Fang huffed very adult-like. "Sure, just like we owe it to him for our imprisonment in the first place!" Iggy said heatedly. Fang shrugged. "What's done is done and can't be undone. Forgive and forget. Torturing the man isn't going to make up for what happened. Let's be the bigger man and turn the other cheek to what he did." The rest of the flock stared at him in silence. Then Max strode over and slapped him hard on the face. "I don't know who you are anymore! The Fang I remember would never say such things! He didn't forgive easily, like how Ari kicked his ass from here on back. No, you never forgave him for what he did to you on the beach that day." "I'll never forget what you did to me on the beach that day," Fang said quietly. They had started to leave, but Max whipped around. "Don't. Don't you dare try to pull that on me. It meant nothing. I-I was just worried, that's all." She spun back around and marched through the door, slamming it as best as she could considering it was mostly broken.

Fang sat up in bed, panting, sweat pouring off his face. _What the--? _He looked around his room. Everything was in place, the game system on a desk, fixed. _Or it never broke. _The door looked to be fine too. Was it all a dream? He got up from his bed and crept downstairs. The house was completely quiet, save for something moving in the living room. In there, Fang found Total bent over something. He came a little closer to see what it was, then gasped and tried his hardest to suppress a scream. Total was humping Celeste! "Oh, God Total! No!" He whispered-shouted. The dog turned around quickly, his eyes wide. "Fang! You weren't supposed to see this!" "I know I wasn't! Dog, that's Angel's favorite toy! I can't give that back to her! Not after this!" "Look, we'll just buy her a new one," Total said, getting off the toy and kicking it under the sofa.

"That's not going to work. She'll know. She'll read our minds and pull the truth from them." Fang sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands. "You couldn't find a lady friend to do that with? Why Celeste? I mean, I got a huge stuffed husky I won at the fair, what about that?" Total turned his face away with indifference. "Too big. Besides, I think that husky's a boy. I'd feel like my dominance was at stake." "It's a frickin' toy for crying out loud!" Fang almost yelled, but whispered it instead. "Your dominance went out the window the day you started screwing teddy bears!" "You don't know what it's like being me!" Total yelled. "I try to talk to other dogs, but they just look at me like I'm weird. All they ever want to do is eat, sleep, and play with their masters. They don't understand English! All they know how to do is bark! And I don't even know what the hell their barks mean!"

Fang got back up and with a slipper, he pulled Celeste from under the couch. Holding it by the tip of a foot, he carried it to the trash can and deposited it under much of the trash, hiding it from view. "You disgust me. Let's go get another toy." A theory had been formulating in Fang's mind about the chimney of the house. He figured that if he got a running start in the living room, he could fly up the chute. He backed up and ran, then spread his wings slightly and jumped up in the chimney, giving a flap to get him aloft. Surprisingly, he rose! Until he hit his head on the top, which was closed. "Ouch!" He hissed. He gave a few more flaps and burst through it, covered in soot and a large welt forming on his head_. Note to self: Never use chimney again! _He landed back on the ground where Total was waiting for him at the front door. "What took ya? I started to think you had died." Fang just picked him up, gave him a hard noogey, then took off in the sky again.

They flew low through back alleys, knowing that they were still risking being seen. No place seemed to be open, except... "The mall!" Total exclaimed. There were still a few lights on. They tried to open the front door, but it was locked. "Hm, we'll have to find another way in," Fang said. He flew up to the second story of the building. There, a large sign told what store they were in front of: Build A Bear Workshop. "Bingo." Backing up, he curled himself into a ball over Total and crashed through the window. An alarm went off, but he ignored it. Moving with a purpose, he set the dog down. "Grab that dress over there! And those wings! I'll get the bear and halo! Let's move, move, move!" They ran to get the supplies. On a table, Fang grabbed Total and the clothes he'd gathered and deposited them on the surface. Total grabbed the plastic heart that was to go into the bear and shoved it inside. Fang stared at him. "What? That's how you know it's alive." Fang shook his head and continued dressing the bear.

They were almost done when flashlights fell on their faces. "Stop! What are you doing here?" Fang whipped around and held the finished bear in front of him like a hostage. "Look, I know this looks weird, but I just wanted to make a bear for my sister. She's terminally ill and doesn't have long and a teddy bear is all she's asking for. Just let us go." "Us?" The guard said. "Me," Fang corrected, taking Total out of the picture. He grabbed the dog and started backing out. "Hey, don't move!" The man yelled. Fang continued to back up. "Just stay there. I don't want any trouble. I just want the bear. Just let me have the bear and nobody will get hurt." "How dramatic," Total whispered. "Shut up," Fang whispered back.

They had backed themselves up to the window they had come through. "Hey kid, don't!" The guard shouted, running after them. Fang grabbed a rack of bear clothes and knocked it over, blocking his way. Then he allowed himself to fall backwards through the window. When he'd nearly hit the ground, he spread his wings and glided rather than took back off in flight.

They crept back in the house ten minutes later. "I'm going to go put this in Angel's room. If we're lucky, she won't know that this isn't the original Celeste. Total, if I even think you're thinking about rooting another bear, I swear we'll disown you, Angel or no Angel." The dog turned his nose up to him. "That stupid toy didn't have enough cushioning for the pushing anyways," and went to his bed in the living room corner. Fang wrinkled his nose at his statement, then went upstairs. Carefully, he put the bear next to Angel, thankful to Nudge's loud snoring which over rode any noises he made.

Finally, he fell back into his bed, exhausted. What a night! Grateful for a warm bed to sleep in (though Jeb never once came to his mind), he closed his eyes and let sleep take him. He awoke some hours later, the sun shining through the window. He looked down at himself and noticed that he was wearing the same thing that he'd worn the day of the flock's argument. But still his game was fixed. He went to the door and noticed that he had to give it a strong jerk to get it open. It felt a little lose on its hinges as well._ What is going on here_? He went to the kitchen to find that everyone was already up and eating breakfast.

Nobody said anything to him. Were they still mad? Yet in Angel's lap sat the new Celeste. Was his and Total's midnight mission real? And did Total just give him a conspiratorial wink? "What's wrong with you people!" He shouted out. Everyone dropped their spoons and forks to stare at him. "What are you talking about?" Max asked innocently, no anger showing in her eyes. "I mean, I thought you guys hated me," he said slowly. The others looked at each other with worry. "Um, why would we hate you?" Angel asked. _Oh, you have every right to hate me, _he thought, but she didn't pick up on it. "I-I thought you guys thought of me as a sell out," he said quietly. "You're trippin'" Nudge said, shaking her head and turning back to her food.

"You feeling okay?" Jeb asked, his cell phone openly beside him. "Uh, yeah, fine, just fine..." He took his place at the table and started eating. So was this a dream or reality? He figured that he'd probably never find out. As it was, he happened to like this situation better than yesterday's...or whenever the argument happened. And Angel didn't seem to notice that this bear wasn't Celeste. He sighed and waited for reality's other shoe to drop. It never would.

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What a twist! This chapter seemed more like some kind of movie plot or something, kind of. Anywho, you know what to do, please review! 


	8. Overly Zealous Zephyr

Many have questioned about what happened to Fang in the last chapter. Though this is not stated in the story, I say that what happened to Celeste is real. The argument is what was dreamed. His bedroom door was never broken, he was just paying too much attention to it because he expected it to be. Same thing for the game system. Later in the story, perhaps I'll mention that Iggy's TV is fine as well. He never showed him how to make a bomb. As for him wearing the same thing he'd worn the day of the argument, that's what he'd worn the day before! Let's just say he was too tired to change into his pj's! So, I hope that explains everything! But like I said, he himself doesn't know any of this.

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**Overly Zealous Zephyr**

As they were putting up their breakfast dishes, Fang still couldn't discern whether he had imagined the day/night before or if it was actually real. Angel had left Celeste in her chair when she'd gotten up to wash her plate and he had picked it up to examine it. This bear seemed very similar to the original Celeste, but that was the point. He tried to find the opening where Total had shoved the heart in at, but at that moment, the little girl had started tugging on his shirt for him to give the bear back. "Fang, I know you don't play with toys! Let me hold Celeste!" He gave it to her, all the while hoping that she wouldn't see it as a sham...if it even was a sham.

-----_Thursday morning, at school-----_

He didn't know how it had happened, but sometime since he'd come to that school, he had become the class clown. His mimicking would have his classmates in stitches and he loved the attention. The teacher never found out that it was him because she could never figure out who was talking. During third hour spelling, he was holding a silent court at the back of the class.

"I pity the fool who doesn't eat bologna and cheese sandwiches!" he said in a Mr. T-like voice. The kids giggled behind their hands. "Do Arnold Swartzenegger!" One girl suggested. Gazzy closed his eyes, then opened them and said in so said's voice, "Give me your lunch money or I shall terminate you." That had them rolling! "My favorite animal in the liger. It's pretty much the coolest animal alive," he said, sounding like Napoleon Dynamite. Now they were shrieking! He changed his voice to a British accent and, sounding like the headmaster, he said, "Oh, codswallop, my good fellow, do come in for tea and crumpets. I might even get you an autograph from J. K. Rowling. She is my third cousin, you know twice removed!" The kids couldn't contain themselves anymore and their laughter carried to the front of the class.

"Zephyr, is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" The teacher asked. The kids at the front turned around expectantly. "Not really," Gazzy said innocently. "Well then, please be more quiet." She turned back around and continued writing the spelling words on the board. Rolling his eyes, he said "Donkey, ogres have layers, lots and lots of layers, just like a--" He cut himself off, sounding like Eddie Murphy "--Cake! Boy I love cake! Just yesterday I had me a whole bunch of cake! It was some idiot's wedding, who was it, oh yeah, Cinderella or something, but they had a chocolate cake and a carrot cake, which is just nasty! And then they had a vanilla cake, but the best one was the ice cream cake! And they--" "Donkey! Ogres are like onions. Not cakes, onions!" "But cakes have layers too!" Gazzy gave an exaggerated sigh in a way that Shrek might have done.

The teacher whipped around again. "Zephyr, didn't I just say to be quiet? There will be no talking at this moment. The break is in an hour. You may do your chattering then." Gazzy gave another sigh, but it was his own. He hated being told what to do, but he had Angel to consider. The rest of the flock had screwed up, but he wasn't going to! His little sister was going to see how great of an older brother he could be!

With saint-like patience, he forced himself to be quiet throughout the rest of the hour. When the bell rang for lunch, he simply grabbed an apple from the snack bar and ran outside. There, everyone was once again waiting for him. He took his place in the center of the circle and began to preach. "In the book of Revelations-ah!" he said, sounding like one of those worked up preachers. Please tell me you can imagine this. You know, the kind that always take in a fast breath after every sentence and suck their teeth with it too? So when Gazzy said Revelations, it sounded more like Revelationsuh. "God is calling yuh! Thank ya Jesus-uh!" He started doing a James Brown scream and stomping around, as though he were really worked up about his "sermon."

Then he changed his tone. He was still "preaching" but he sounded now more like one of those slow reverends that take forever in a lifetime to say what they're going to say. And God forbid if they have to correct themselves! "I'd like you all to turn to Genesis 1:18...amen...hallelujah... and amen. Now...I'm gonna preach...about the book...of Genesis...how's everyone doing this morning?" He said, as though asking the congregation. The kids shouted "Fine!" and Gazzy continued. "Now in the book...of Genesis ...can I get an amen?" "Preach on, now, preach on!" Someone said in a hyped voice. "In the beginning...God created...the heavens...and the earth. I said...the heavens...and the earth." "That's right reverend!" Another kid shouted out, and another one screamed, "Thank ya Lord!"

Somehow, Amazing Grace was started and in the old school, classical way, they sang the first verse. Gazzy's heart swelled with the participation of his crowd. He could make a career of this! He went on with the church act until it was evident that it was wearing thin, then switched over to a new tactic. Picking up a cigarette butt that he'd found on the ground, he put it in his mouth (yeah, ew!) and leaned against the side of the school building, popping his collar up like he was cool. As one of the young female teachers walked by, he did a wolf-whistle and said, "You got any fries to go with that shake?" The teacher stopped and stared at him incredulously, then stormed off in a huff. His audience cackled.

He rubbed a hand through his hair slowly, as though he were trying to impress someone. Another teacher walked by, this one a male. Gazzy openly glared at him, and gave a smirk when the teacher looked a little frightened. "Yeah, keep walking buddy. You don't wanna step in my circle." He raised his arms and kissed what could eventually become biceps. As the break wore on, he found rudder ways to talk to the passerby. Then he saw him: Mr. Wilson. "Five-Oh! Split!" One kid shouted and like ants the kids scattered across the playground. Gazzy stayed where he was, entertaining an invisible crowd.

"Mr. Zephyr, you seem to have quite the mouth on you today," he said to him in a nasty voice. "Beat it old man, go clean your dentures or something." He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and acted like he was taking a puff, sucking real hard on it, not as though it were a cigarette but more like a joint. He gave a fake cough, then said, "Dang! That's some good stuff!" Mr. Wilson grabbed at him, but Gazzy gave him a side-step. "How about we take a walk to my office?" the principal said. "How about you lick my toe jam?" Gazzy said coolly. The headmaster's face turned an angry red. Gazzy decided to push it a little further. "Are you getting mad? Or are you just blushing to see me?" Then he jumped up and grabbed the man's hair. "Oh man, dude, you wear a toupee? Sick!" He threw the hairpiece in a mud puddle, wiping his hands off on his jeans as though it were diseased.

Mr. Wilson lunged and grabbed him this time, swooping him up onto his shoulder and carried him back into the school. "Aren't you like eighty something? Didn't your doctor advise you against heavy lifting at your age? We don't want you slipping your disk, now do we?" The principal only grunted. "You know, surprisingly, you're as light as a bird." Gazzy went rigid in his arms and quit struggling. Did he know?

They went into the office the rest of the flock knew so well. Well actually, he knew it best, considering how many times he was sent there during the beginning of the year. He was roughly tossed into a chair, but rather than taking out a detention form, Mr. Wilson picked up the phone and started dialing. A few seconds later, then: "Mr. Batchelder? Yes, this is Mr. Wilson calling again about one of your children. It seems Zephyr has acquired an uncanny knack for disrespecting authority. He was seen and heard making rude comments to some of our faculty." A silence, then: "Where could he have learned this? Oh, I'm not sure. Perhaps the older children in the house?" He asked it innocently, but gave Gazzy a smug look.

He turned his back on Gazzy and said a few "Um-hm's" into the phone, then turned back around and handed it to the boy. "Your father would like a word with you." _ I'm a bastard child, I don't know my father, _he thought. He took the phone and gave a dull, "Hello?" "Gazzy, what the hell?" Jeb said in a tired voice. In the background, he could hear Total singing the theme song to _Dora the Explorer. _As if the dog didn't already know English. "I'm so fed up with this, I don't even know what to say," Jeb went on. "Then don't say anything," Gazzy said and hung up the phone before Jeb could speak.

Then he got up and started to leave the office "I'm needed at home. Gotta milk the cows," he told the principal. "I'll be seeing you Saturday," was all he said, then it dawned on him. "Hey!" He shouted out, but by then, Gazzy was gone, flying over the school and beyond.

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I don't know why everyone always goes home when they're in trouble with this story, but it's pretty evident that basically none of the members of the flock want to be at school! And yeah, I know I said I would watch the little kids' mouths, but Gazzy didn't say the word, he though it. No harm in that , right? Besides, if you were raised with the life he had, you'd be bitter too! Anyways, please review! 


	9. These Are My Confessions

Here you guys go, anther chapter to blow your minds! Enjoy! Oh, and due to something I read on-line, there's something mentioned here from the third book. A bit of a spoiler for me and others who havn't read it, but I'm that's okay with me!

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**These Are My Confessions**

The flock sat in an orderly row on the couch in the living room, watching a baffled Jeb walk back and forth in front of them. He wasn't saying anything, but kept opening his mouth like he wanted to, then he'd change his mind and continue pacing. Finally, he got out, "I don't get it." "What's not to get Jeb?" Iggy said with an innocent voice. "You," Jeb said, pointing pointlessly at Iggy. "And you, and you, and you, and you," he added, pointing to Max, Fang, Nudge, and Gazzy as well. "Has there been like some kind of domino effect in your guy's behavior or something?" "I'm still good," Angel piped up. Jeb waved her off and muttered, "But for how long?" then went back to his pacing.

Nudge slowly raised her hand as though they were at school. "Jeb? Are you having a nervous breakdown? I heard it's common for men your age. I mean, I don't think you've been employed for the past three months—yeah, we know. I found it really incredible that you were able to answer the phone every time the principal called." Jeb raised his eyebrow's to her. "Oh really now? What else do you know about me?" "Nudge got that _Maxim_ magazine from you," Fang said. "We also happen to know your social security number, the pin number to your bank account, and that your favorite color is pink." Fang looked up and gave him a sweet smile. "That's just for starters, there's plenty more where that came from."

Jeb blinked. "Okay, so I see how it is. You seem to know so much about me, and I so little about you. Fine, let's have a little confess-all session right here. Fang, is there anything you'd like to confess to?" Fang put a finger to his mouth in thought. Then he turned to Iggy and said, "Iggy, there have been times when I've used your toothbrush to clean the toilet. I'm sorry." Iggy's mouth fell open. The apology went right over his head. "Oh, that's okay Fang," he said tersely. "I too have kissed Max. And she said I'm the better one at it." Fang's face clouded in anger and he balled up his fists. Max reached over to Iggy and punched him as hard as she could in the arm. He didn't even flinch, but gave a smirk at the thought of the face that he knew Fang had.

"Fine, I guess I'll go next," Max said, flustered. "I stole fifty dollars from Jeb to get a tattoo." Jeb raised his eyebrows again. "Where? And of what?" Max sighed and pulled down the collar of her shirt to show a picture of a young Leonardo DiCaprio on her left breast. "Don't ask what came over me," She pleaded. Fang continued to stare at her chest until she realized he was doing it. She quickly adjusted her shirt, then slugged him in the arm too.

Nudge stood up like she was going to make a huge announcement. "Angel, it was my red socks that ruined your favorite dress in the wash. Rather than telling you, once I found out what had did it, I removed my socks and played it off like I didn't know anything." "Yeah, I know you did!" Angel said heatedly. "That's why I'm the one that tore the only picture you had of your mom, not Total!" She said, nearly in tears from anger. Nudge gasped and started toward her like she was going to do something, but Jeb grabbed her and spun her around behind him, sitting her in an armchair across from the others. She glared at Angel and Angel glared back.

Gazzy went next. "I told someone outside of the flock about our powers." This got everyone's attention. "Who?" Max said worriedly. "God," Gazzy said truthfully, shrugging. "Not that it matters, I don't think the guy even listens to people." Jeb decided he'd save the religious lesson for another day, happy that He was all Gazzy had told their secret to. Total had started crying for some reason and now he gave a loud sniffle.

"That's—that's so beautiful. All these confessions. I have one too." Fang thought he knew what he was going to say and tried to stop him. "Total, it's okay! Some things are better left in the closet." "Oh, so you know?" Total said, blinking tears away. "Of course I know! It's alright, it's over." Total then gave him a confused expression. "No, Fang, I think you and I are on two different pages. I'm a gay dog." That knocked everyone over. "You're _what?!! _Iggy shouted. "Yep, I'm gay," Total said proudly. "I finally realized it last night when I was--" "Taking a walk!" Fang cut in quickly, giving a hard stare to Total to go with it. "No, when I was looking at that husky you have in your room," Total said to him. "Man, it feels good to come clean with it! No more lies! No more denial! Just pure truth! Like the time I slept with Celeste!"

"TOTAL, NO!" Fang now shouted. Angel stared at him. "It's okay, Fang. Total sleeps in my bed and I sleep with Celeste, so it's kind of like he sleeps with her too." "Oh...yeah, right..." Fang gave a weak chuckle, then slumped back in his seat. Jeb looked around at them. "Well, though you guys have pretty much exposed all my dirt, I have something else to add to the mix. I'm trying to go the extra mile and have you guys adopted by me." Different variations of "No!" went up, and even Total shook his head. "Sorry Jeb, but the crowd's decided," Max said. "We'll tolerate your rules while we live under this roof...and the one that Gazzy blew off...but we're not going to be your children forever. We do have parents, you know. We just got to find them." _If only you knew that I was your father, _Jeb thought, but would never say. Or at least not now.

Instead he said, "Well, now that we've gotten that out our systems, I think we also need to get rid of the anger we all now harbor toward each other. I want all of you to do whatever it takes to lose your anger short of hitting each other and calling each other names." Immediately, Nudge reached over and grabbed Celeste, holding her head and body in such a way like she was going to rip the bear's head off. Angel ran up the stairs and in a second, was back holding Nudge's documents from the School. "Do it, and I'll erase everything that says you exist. Go ahead, I dare you! I bet you don't have what it takes!" Angel was sounding slightly deranged.

It was this that brought them to their senses. What evil had they spread to the girl through their own violent actions toward one another? "Hey look, I'm sorry Iggy," Fang said, putting a hand on Iggy's shoulder. "I mean, you got me back...kind of...are we still friends?" Iggy thought about it. "That was a pretty sweet kiss, " he mused. "Yeah, all's forgiven." He shook Fang's hand and everyone awwed. Max looked at Jeb and said, "My bad about stealing your money. I know it's wrong, not to mention I do have my own bank account...not that I know how or where the money's coming from though..." Jeb remained silent about this as well and said, "It's alright. We'll go sometime to have that tattoo removed. Yeah, he may seem cute to you now, but it'll look ridiculous when you're old and you have the tattoo of some guy who's going to be dead by that time and nobody will probably even remember him." Max nodded in agreement.

Total was crying again. "Oh...my...God! That was like, soooo sweet! I think I need a facial towelette!" Everyone rolled their eyes at the new drama queen. Angel and Nudge continued to stare each other down. "Put the bear down," Angel said dangerously. "After you put the papers down," Nudge said with the same edge to her voice. The silence over the room was deafening. Then suddenly, both girls dropped their possessions. "I loved that dress!" Angel wailed. "It was the only picture I had of my mom!" Nudge cried. They ran toward each other and hugged, sobbing a rainstorm on one another. "We can still tape the picture," Angel sniffled. "And the dress is replaceable," Nudge chocked. "And maybe Enrique will call me tonight!" Total cried. No one said anything to this, but everyone awwed again at the girls, then the flock met in the middle of the room in one huge hug, though Fang and Iggy more or less patted everyone on their backs, not being the lovey-dovey types. Then they pulled away and did something that'd been missing from their lives for a while: They stacked their fists on top of the others, then tapped them twice on the back of the hand.

"Well, that's that then. Now to bed, all of you! Oh, and Gazzy, you're grounded too." Gazzy shrugged. Who ever really listened to what Jeb had to say anyways? As they went up the stairs, polite comments could be heard back and forth between them. "No, after you friend!" Fang said to Iggy when usually they would've fought over who got to brush their teeth first. "Thanks, pal!" Iggy said back enthusiastically. Jeb almost threw up, but this sure did beat them fighting. Nudge opened the door to hers and Angel's room, allowing the younger girl to go through first. "No, really, I insist!" Nudge said, smiling brightly and gesturing toward the room when Angel tried to refuse her kind offer. "Please, I couldn't!" the little girl said. They continued to ping-pong courtesies between them until Max shoved both of them inside and closed the door.

As she was going into her own room, Gazzy turned to her and said, "Night Max! You're the best human-bird hybrid older sister a human-bird hybrid could ever ask for!" Fang and Iggy nodded their agreement from the bathroom, toothpaste covering their mouths. For once, they were sharing the space. And evidently, the paste! "Um, thanks...night..."She told them. "Night Max!" Everyone called out from their rooms. On the other side of the door, she blinked and pinched herself. Now it was her turn to wonder if this was real. It all just seemed too good to be true.

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So, how'd you like it? This is going to be my last chapter for a while. Living in New Orleans, you know that everyone loves Mardi Gras and it's that time of the year again! But I update at school (no net at home) and we're going to be out half of next week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so I get a five day break, whoo-hoo! I'll try to have two chapters out for ya with the long break...maybe...I don't want to update too soon! Please review! 


	10. Bring Out the Kid in You!

Such a long break, I know, I know, but hey, here's a long chapter to make up for it! Enjoy!

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**Bring Out the Kid In You!**

(this was the Nestle Crunch bar's motto, last time I checked!

-----_Friday-----_

Max slowly opened her eyes and noticed that the sun was already up. Meaning it was time for them to get ready for school. She sat up quickly and about head butted Fang, who was sitting on the edge of her bed staring at her. "Did you know that you snore when you sleep?" he asked her quietly. "Fang, what the hell are you doing in my room?" she asked him with an edge to her voice. "Nothing, it's just that I've never heard you snore before. I had to come make sure you were the real Max and not another fake."

"Well, I think you've figured that out now, so go," she said, getting out the bed and searching through her dresser for a clean school uniform. "Not quite," Fang said, coming up behind her. She whipped around to face him, hands balled into fists at her side. "What is is now?" she asked, all pretenses of being kind gone. "If train A left the station at 11:56 a.m. going at sixty miles and hour and train B left the station at 12:05 p.m. going eighty miles an hour, at what time will the trains cross paths?" Max gave an angry cry and shoved him out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind him. _What's gotten into that boy? _She wondered. She could sense rather than hear Fang on the other side. "Go away Fang!" she shouted at him. "What time will they cross paths?" he asked again. "At the time I punch you in your face! Now go!" Though he made not a sound, she watched his shadow at the bottom of the door move down the hall.

She joined the rest of the flock at the breakfast table thirty minutes later. Strangely enough, Jeb was at the stove cooking, while for once Iggy was among the first to sit down. "Morning, Max!" everyone said at the same time, even Total. She froze in her steps. "Uh, morning, guys." she said slowly. "Hey Max, I saved you the biggest biscuit," Angel told her, sliding the plate her way. "Thanks sweetie, that was real—are you rocking back and forth?" She looked closer at Angel, who was rubbing her arms and swaying in her seat. "No," Angel said, rubbing her arms quickly. "Yes you are, I'm looking dead at you. What's wrong with you?" She prayed that it was a simple matter and wouldn't result in something catastrophic such as blowing the house up again.

"We've just found out that Angel has negative reactions to bacon," Jeb said, coming to sit down with a plate full of assorted breakfast foods on it. "Extreme nervousness is one of them." "Great analysis, Jeb," Iggy said, though he sounded sincere. Jeb gave him a blank stare for a moment. "She should be okay by the time you guys leave for school, hopefully." "Wait, how do you know she should be okay?" Gazzy asked him, shoving three strips of bacon in his mouth. Jeb shrugged. "Had a test subject at the School who was allergic to pork. Same thing happened to them as what's happening to Angel. He had a few other symptoms to boot, but they went away within half an hour. Though he also ended up expiring three hours later..." he added to himself, but everyone heard him.

Angel let her fork clatter on her plate. "So-so, I really am gonna die?" she asked quietly. Jeb let out a laugh and waved her off. "Of course not, my dear! You've lived this long, why would you expire now? Besides, that kid was a year younger than you and mixed with sloth. You should be fine." "Should be being the key words there," Fang said suddenly, putting down his own bacon. Max glanced at him and he gave her a slightly worried stare. Nothing in his face showed that they had encountered one another earlier that morning.

Later, they put their breakfast dishes in the dish washer. Angel wondered if this would be the last time she ever did so. She rubbed her arms again. No, she'd be fine. Just like Jeb said. I mean, it was time for them to go to school, and the tremors had nearly stopped. _I'm okay, just fine..._she thought, but without thinking about it, she hacked into Jeb's mind. _Poor thing, just too young to die. That's the price you pay for messing with science though. I wonder how long it's gonna be? I knew I should've kept better watch! Now it's too late! _Angel pulled out and burst into tears, running out of the house.

Max saw her and ran after her, but Angel had already taken to the sky. She started to get a running jump, but tripped over the broken TV in the yard. "Dammit, Jeb! You couldn't throw this stupid thing over the side of the mountain or something?" she yelled to herself. Gazzy had taken flight after his sister, Nudge, Fang, and Iggy behind him. She caught up to them a second later, but they all were circling uselessly in the sky. "She's gone," Nudge said, scanning the horizon.

Gazzy let out a loud, frustrated cry. "God--" as I promised, I lowered the cussing on the younger members of the flock, so use your imagination as to the words that Gazzy's screaming, because there's more than one! After he'd stopped his tirade, everyone just stared at him. "See, and this is why I say watch your mouths around them," Max whispered to Fang and Iggy, referring to Nudge, Gazzy and Angel. "Oh, yeah, you've never cussed around them?" Iggy said. "You just did a moment ago!" "Yeah, but that was unplanned. Things like what Fang said when Jeb threw the TV out the door could be left unsaid though." Max countered. "How about you keep Fang out of this?" Fang said. She opened her mouth, but couldn't think of a good enough reply.

She took off in the lead, searching as close to the ground as she dared to find the little girl. The others split up, hoping to cover more ground. Where could she have gone to? "What are her favorite places?" Iggy asked. "Toy stores," everyone said at once and made a bee-line to Toy's R Us. They scanned the aisles, looking for her but came up with nothing. Max waited by the entrance for the others to meet her like at school, but after ten minutes, still nobody had come. "Don't tell me they got lost!" she muttered to herself. She re-checked her steps and found Iggy and Fang in the same spot.

Fang was wearing a Darth Vader helmet on his head and breathing in that deep way that the character's known for. "Iggy," he breathed. "I am your brother." "That's not true!" Iggy yelled dramatically, gripping his blue light saber tighter. Fang raised his red one. "Yes it is! Are we not brothers in Christ?" Iggy rolled his eyes. "Oh Fang, shut the hell up!" he said, then ran toward him. Fang side stepped him and caught him on the back with his saber. Iggy fell to his knees, acting like he was mortally wounded. Fang advanced toward him slowly. "I will ask you again. Join the dark side and I will spare you your life." He had pulled out his black wings, and with the helmet and black clothes, the image was comical and impressive at the same time.

"Never!" Iggy shouted. "Then you leave me no choice," Fang said quietly, then plunged his saber in Iggy's chest. Actually, it went under his arm pit, but Iggy acted like he'd been speared with it. "Por que, mi hermano? Por que?" Iggy sighed, then closed his eyes and died. Fang pulled back his saber and turned to look at Max, who wore a bemused smile. "What'd he say?" he asked her. "He asked, 'Why, my brother ? Why?' in Spanish." "Oooh," he said slowly. "You know, that kind of contradicts what we'd been fighting about." She shrugged and went over to help Iggy up. Then they left to go find Nudge.

She was in the doll department looking at all the Barbies. "You know, I just don't get it." She said when she saw them. "How in the world did she wind up with a limo, a brand new Beetle, a stewardess and captain of an airplane at the same time, and can juggle being a mom and an older sister to three year old Kristi and Kelly? What real person has that kind of life?" "It's just make-believe, Nudge," Max said. "And that's just it! There's no reality to her! She's cold plastic! And if I see one more of these that sing "Oops, I Did it Again," I'ma go, "Oops, I broke it again" as I rip its head off!"

Max gave her a worried stare. "Nudge, it ain't gotta be all that," she said. Nudge gave a sigh to calm herself. "My bad, I'm just tired of seeing Barbie and her perfect life when ours are so screwed up, you know? She's been out for fifty years and hasn't aged a drop! And then she can do gymnastics! And she's a store clerk! And a fashion model, and a veterinarian, and god only knows what else! She's cold plastic, how can she do all of that?!" "Nudge, you can't watch _Mean Girls _anymore," Max said and pulled the girl away from the aisle to find Gazzy.

A/N: I too feel the same way Nudge does about Barbie. Something about her just seems so...unlikely, you know? Something about playing with a human toy never interested me, as well as baby dolls. I was the kid that'd play with stuffed animals...in fact, here at eighteen, I still have them! And no, I do not play with them! But the silly "games" I played with them was kind of the foundation to my weird personality! Just a little background info on me!

They found Gazzy in the Lego department. He had pulled open several different boxes and already had a block world created. On one side of the "world" sat Hogwarts (yes, if I'm not mistaken, they do have a Harry Potter Lego set). On the school's lawn sat the Death Star (space ship from Star Wars). He had several pirates in large boats on the lake that's in front of the school and was in the middle of playing some game that was a cross of these two and _Pirates of the Caribbean. _

"You'll never take me alive, Luke Skywalker!" Gazzy yelled to himself. The others sat down quietly around him to watch. "Think again, Captain Jack Sparrow!" His captain Sparrow slashed his sword through several other pirates and came face to face with Luke. "I will have the Sorcerer's Stone if it's the last thing I do!" Sparrow said. "Argh, that's not gonna happen, matey!" and the two started fighting. Meanwhile, someone that was supposed to be Harry Potter was casting incantations on half the people on the ships.

"Take that Voldemort! You can't take the _Black Pearl_! She's property of Sparrow!" Gazzy shouted, throwing in a few spells. (The _Black Pearl _is the ship belonging to Captain Sparrow...sort of, you'd have to watch the movies to fully understand.) The two fought for a while until Harry hit Voldemort with a very hard blast to his chest, shouting Avada Kedavera, the killing curse. The man fell over board and into the water, where a large squid pulled him under. He never surfaced. Harry ran over and did the same thing to Luke, who for Gazzy's game was evil. Then Harry and Sparrow both boarded the Death Star on the school grounds and took off in flight as everything below them blew up.

It was here that Gazzy realized that he was being watched. He glanced up at them sheepishly, then shoved the toys away. "Oh...sorry about that...guess I got carried away." They smiled at him. "It's okay, Gazzy, we all got carried away," Max said, looking at Fang and Iggy, who had been sitting forward and paying apt attention to Gazzy's game. "Come on, we still got to find Angel," Fang said, trying to play off that he was ever interested.

They headed toward the exit, but stopped when Fang came across something in another aisle. A laser tag set. "No, Fang," Max said, but he gave her one of his beautiful smiles, and she blushed. "Come on, you know you wanna," he said. She sighed and rolled her eyes, then pulled out the credit card she'd found several months earlier in New York and paid for three laser tag sets, each coming with two guns and armor.

As soon as they stepped outside, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge put them on. "I'm on Fang's team!" Nudge yelled. "Fine, I'm on Iggy's," Gazzy said. They took to the sky and started firing at each other. "Guys, do remember we have to—oh, never mind!" Max said and put her stuff on too. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

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This chapter definitely went on longer than I had expected! This is four pages here on my computer! Wow, my bad, I know that's a lot to read! Well, let me shorten this chapter farewell, and just say please review! 


	11. Food For Thought

Been another minute since I've update, so sorry guys! I've been meaning to write, but school's really taking it out of me! Who knew that using so much brain power could leave you so exhausted! Okay, it's nothing like that, though for some reason, the moment I get on the bus to go home, I'm trying my hardest to fall asleep on it...though with the road conditions here in New Orleans, that's nearly impossible! Anywho, read this, like this, love this!

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**Food For Thought**

Immersed in their air laser-tag game, Max temporarily forgot about Angel. It wasn't until she started complaining about losing so much because it was just her on a team when it dawned on her. "Snaps!" she cried out suddenly. Nudge came to a full stop and stared at her. "How'd you know about him?" she asked in a concerned voice, wondering if Max, like her teacher, was losing it over a plant. "What are you talking about?" Iggy asked from above her, circling when he sensed the game come to a halt. "Max mentioned my teachers' plant, Snap." Nudge said to him. "No, I said snaps, as in...well, I'm not going to say it. But we need to find Angel, guys. We've wasted precious time." Max said, starting to descend.

Fang dipped low behind her, then came back up, inches from her face and firing his gun until Max's armor gave off the cry that she had "died" in the game. "Ha! Gotcha! Oh yeah, Fang's the best! You don't want none of this!" he kept cheering, making victory gestures in the air. Max only blinked, then pushed him aside and continued her flying, ignoring him when he said, "That's how powerful my game is, I send weaklings running home crying! Can't hang with the big dogs, stay your ass on the porch!" Nudge looked over at Iggy and Gazzy and whispered, "He really needs to join a sports team or something. Too bad we can't at school because the physical would expose us for what we are." The boys nodded in agreement, more toward her statement about Fang as they followed Max.

On the search went, checking every toy store they knew, even the Build-A-Bear Workshop in the mall that Fang had five-finger discounted the new Celeste from. Still nothing. "So, what's next?" Max asked them, started to get tired from so much flying. Fang, returning to his sensible self said, "Where else beside toy stores would a six year-old go? She loves amusement parks, like remember when we went to Disney Land? Perhaps she went somewhere like that." "But the nearest amusement park is in California!" Gazzy said. They stared at each other for a moment. "Then I guess we're going to California," Max said with a shrug. Considering that usually she could sense the flock if they were nearby (kind of how she found Iggy in the cave), and she couldn't sense Angel, she had a feeling the girl wasn't anywhere near home anymore.

They were currently behind a candy store, hoping to find her there maybe. Max backed up and took off in a running leap, Gazzy, Fang, and Iggy rising seconds later. Max flapped her wings once to get more altitude, then circled around, waiting for Nudge to rise as well. She didn't. "I'm tired!" She whined. Max could hear Iggy groan loudly and even Fang's eyes narrowed a bit, but this look was quickly wiped away when he said, "We have been flying for hours. You know how it takes the energy out of you. And besides, Nudge is our bottomless pit who can eat for days but burns it off in a matter of moments. I think it's time for a lunch break." Max narrowed her eyes back at him. Some piece of her hated the return of the analytical Fang.

But she had to agree, she too was tired and wouldn't mind a bite to eat. "Fine, let's go get some Micky D's or something." Yet that's not what anyone was in the mood for. "I want some seafood!" Iggy said. "I wouldn't mind going for a steak...or five," Fang put in. " "I want my babyback, babyback, baby back ribs! With barbecue sauce!" sang Gazzy in a very good imitation from the old Applebee's commercials. "I want Chinese food!" Nudge said excitedly. "Enough!" Max screamed. "Guys, how are we supposed to carry any of that and fly at the same time?" The others looked at each other for a moment, then Iggy said simply, "We don't." Max's fist twitched from a held back punch.

"Flying and eating isn't good for the digestion," Gazzy said. "I should know. Now Max, do you really want me up there with indigestion, knowing how_my_ stomach works?" Everyone turned to her and drew their fingers across their throats in pleas of "no" to Gazzy's question. Still traumatized from Gazzy's first explosion, Fang looked like he was on the verge of tears at the thought of being air borne with a flatulent Gazzy. "I guess we don't want that," Max conceded. Nudge joined them in the air and around they searched for her Chinese food. Max couldn't help thinking about what Jeb had said about them being able to eat a whole buffet and still ask for seconds. I guess she'd find out.

The place they chose was an establishment called Ching's Garden (a real place in Natchitoches (nack-it-ish), LA, though I've never been there!). It was the lunch hour and so it was very packed. No one noticed the six kids who walked in for they were too busy eating. A woman at a front counter asked them almost impassively if they were doing the all you can eat buffet, or would rather sit down and order. The flock eying the assorted foods laid out made up her mind for her. "I guess we're doing the buffet," Max shrugged. Fang and Iggy high-fived and so did Nudge and Gazzy. Before the money transaction was even completed, they had dashed over to the food, filling up plates and bowls.

Nudge couldn't keep from sampling the food as she put it on her plate, making her have to go back to get more. "Oh my goddess, this is heaven!" she said. Iggy was chewing on a chicken wing openly, then stuffed the bones under the pile of shrimp fried rice. Max looked at him with a horrified expression. "Iggy, that's sick!" she hissed. He shrugged. "So. We're never coming back here again, right? We're trying to stay incognito?" "Exactly, and shoving chicken bones under the rice isn't every inconspicuous." "How will they know it was us?" Fang said, at least using some chop sticks to eat his sweet and sour pork, even if he was still in line. "Because...just because!" she snapped, turning back to the food before them and stacking random things on her plate.

Finally when it seemed the china would hold no more, they carried them to a secluded table near the back. There, they dug in, nearly all manners gone. Except for Max. She used her fork properly, taking small bites and wiping her mouth off on her napkin. "Just eat the damn food!" Fang whispered out the side of his mouth from across her. "Look, maybe you guys don't mind eating like a pack of starving hyenas, but I do. You're drawing attention to yourselves and--" She was cut off by Fang sticking his chopsticks holding orange chicken in her mouth. She blinked and, not wanting to "draw attention to herself" swallowed the food. "Good, huh?" he asked her. She had to admit, it was. "See how much more you enjoy your food when you just get down and eat it? Quit trying to be so picky."

She looked around at the others and saw that he was right. Without her noticing it, Nudge had already gone back for seconds, Gazzy was dunking his entire egg roll in the sweet and sour sauce, and Iggy was chewing slowly with his eyes closed, savoring the taste of some crab from the seafood section of his plate. Stabbing as much food as she could onto her fork, she shoved it in her mouth. Fang nodded as though he were agreeing to something private between the two. She got an uneasy feeling at this, but said nothing.

Soon, everyone at some point or time had went back to fill their plates. But when Gazzy had went up for his third, a man grabbed his arm and shook his head. "No! Enough!" he said in a heavy Asian accent. "But it's all you can eat and I'm still hungry!" he cried. The man shook his head. "No! Other's eat too!" "But if they're full, that's them," Gazzy said, pulling loose. "I could eat a whole cow and still ask for more." Max rolled her eyes. This was New York all over again. She decided now would be the time to step in. "Sir, we're very sorry! My little brother doesn't know when enough is enough!" She turned to Gazzy and pulled him away, going to the front counter. There, a woman handed them paper cartons to put the rest of their food in. That was fine with Gazzy.

As they continued on their way, all but Max was still chowing. She could hear several "Whoops!" from someone as they made some kind of mistake or another. Finally she turned around and saw that Fang was trying to still use his chopsticks in the air while eating his sesame seed chicken, but it kept slipping from him and falling to the ground below. He glanced up at her. "You know, I have half a mind to go down there and try to find what I've dropped," he said. Max couldn't tell if he was being serious or joking, but either way the statement scared her, so she said nothing.

Too much time had once again been lost. But now that they were fueled up, they took off in the instinctive direction of California in hopes of finding Angel.

* * *

Wow, I didn't mean for the food thing to go on so long! But I guess I'm kind of stalling for the end! I'm having fun writing this story! Oh, in case you're wondering where the flock currently live in relation to California, it's Colorado. I believe that that's where they were living with Jeb in the books. Okay, so there you have it, another chapter, so please review! 


	12. If You Build It, Angel Will Come

I find the title of this chapter pretty comical in itself. The line kind of comes from _Angels in the Outfield, _both using the word angel. Another title that sounded fitting! Do enjoy!

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**If You Build it, Angel Will Come**

Dark had descended by the time they crossed the state line into California. Everyone was exhausted again, even Fang, who had tried to conserve his food for energy as long as possible, refusing to even share with the others. But this came to a halt when Nudge flew in front of him and, sucking a finger, stuck it in the carton and proclaimed, "My germs!" The others had followed suit, even Max, and thus he had given up on his precious shrimp fried rice.

Now all that was left to do was find Disney World. Or land. I'll admit, I can't quite think of which one is where, so I'm saying it's Disney World. They scanned everything below them, trying to find something like a ferris wheel or anything that resembled an amusement park. Suddenly, Iggy spoke up. "You guys might want to fly lower." "Why?" Gazzy asked. Just then, a plane tore by, nearly sucking him into the turbines. "Whoa! What the--" "Watch your mouth," Max warned. "Floodpuckers," Gazzy finished lamely. "Dude, how come you didn't pick up on that sooner?" "I could ask you the same thing," Iggy said irritably. It was definitely time for another break, but they were so close...

Nudge pointed below and cried out, "There! I think I see it!" They looked too and indeed it did look like it belonged in a classical Disney movie. One by one, they swooped down like birds closing in on its prey. In fact, before he landed, Fang reached down and picked up a battered and gritty piece of sesame seed chicken that he'd dropped right before he forked over his food. So there was the answer to Max's previous question. They all watched as he brushed it off on his pants, blew on it, said "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt," then stuck it in his mouth. They might not have gained much manners over their few years of freedom, but even Max knew that you just didn't eat things off the ground.

"Don't hate," he told the staring flock. "You know ya'll wanted it instead." "Yeah, Fang, tell yourself whatever you need to to sleep at night," Nudge said. They strode over to the entrance where they were selling tickets. Max simply handed over her card and picked a random number of tickets, then distributed them among everyone. As they headed inside, she whispered to them, "Split up. Meet at Cinderella's Castle when you're done looking. And for the love of your lives, please try to blend in." They had already tucked their wings out of sight. They broke off in separate ways, looking for their little sister.

Everyone was doing fine except for Iggy. Being blind usually was no problem, but in large crowds, he felt conspicuous. People jostled and pushed him about until he was ready to scream. And just when he was really about to do so, someone was pulling on his arm. "What?" he asked nastily. He could sense the boy shrink back in fear. "I-I just wanted an autograph, Mr. Cyclops." What?! "Okay, come again?" Iggy said. "An autograph," the kid said. "You are Cyclops from the X-Men, aren't you?" Iggy had never had the pleasure of watching the cartoon or movies. He'd been blinded before his knowledge of television.

"Um, what gives you the impression that I'm him?" He could feel the kid smile. "Because, you're tall like him and have red hair and...you must be keeping your eyes closed because you forgot your glasses and you don't want to fire your lasers on everybody!" he said triumphantly, as though he'd solved a great mystery. Iggy still had no idea what he was talking about. "Uh...yeah, that's it. So, um, where do you want this autograph?" He could hear something tearing; it turned out to be the kids' shirt. "On my chest, over my heart! That way I can carry you with me everywhere!" Iggy's bubble of curiosity popped.

"I don't think I can do that," he said to the boy. He could feel his emotions change. A lip trembling. Then, a flood of tears. Iggy tried to back away innocently, when he heard two adult voices. "What's wrong, Johnny?" "He-won't-give-me-an-auto-graph!" the boy hiccuped between sobs. They gave Iggy a reproachful stare that he didn't see. "Aw, come on now, and be a good sport," the father said. "Our little Johnny here is terminally ill with, ah, needanautographnowitis and he only has twenty-four hours to live. Can't you grant the little guy a dying wish?" Oh great, the guilt-trip trick. Iggy sighed and when handed a pen, signed what he thought spelled cyclops on the boy's chest. As the family walked away, he realized the true effect of why Fang told Nudge faking a terminal illness is wrong. There didn't have to be a reason, it just was.

Nudge had gotten caught up with something called Candy Mountain, which really looked like it was made from ice cream and had assorted candies stuck in it. There was a particularly juicy looking piece near the top and she set out to get to it. What would have taken her only a second if she could fly ended up being twenty minutes. But finally she was at the summit. She stroked the huge mint lovingly, then bit. And about broke her teeth. It wasn't real. She should have known. "Man, this place can really play tricks on you," she muttered to herself, ashamed for even trying the "candy" out. But she was starved and about ready to eat anything. She'd seek out Max in a little and beg her to break bread with the flock.

Fang had also been going steady with his search, until he came across a golf course. There was some little kid who everyone was crowded around, talking about he was a child prodigy or something. He was about nine years old. Though Fang was considerably older, he decided to try his arm at the game. The kid's first swing sent the ball only inches from the hole. Fang's actually went in. A hushed silence fell over everyone. Right then and there, the kid threw a tantrum, screaming that Fang had cheated. He then took off his plaid vest and threw it on the ground, stomping on it and swinging his club wildly. Fang tried to duck it, but was whacked a good one on the back of the head. He went down for the count.

When he woke up, a beautiful young woman stood over him. "Are you an angel?" he asked. She smiled and he noticed that she was missing a tooth. In fact, she wasn't pretty at all, but very ugly! He sat up quickly and backed away. "Ugh! Never mind!" He took in his surroundings. He was on a very plush bed with canopy-like curtains surrounding it. The room was very nice and he wondered whose was it. "Where am I?" he asked the hag. "Cinderella's Castle," she said. "So you must be one of the ugly stepsisters, huh?" he said before he could catch himself. The woman drew herself up in indignation and pointed vehemently at the door, slapping him in the spot where he'd just been injured on his way out.

Well, his search had been a failure, and this was where Max had instructed them to meet up once they were done. He walked through the lobby in a daze, feeling very tired and wishing for more Chinese food, grimy or not. But then something caught his eye. A small, blonde head. And a flash of white wings. Angel! He pushed through the people in his way, vaulting a table that held an arrangement of flowers as well. When he'd reached her side, he was so lost for words or actions, that he simply shook her roughly by her shoulders.

"What the heck is wrong with you?! We've been looking everywhere for you! Did you have to run away to a completely 'nother state? And why are your wings out?" "Okay, mother Max," she said, grinning like nothing was wrong. "Relax. Everybody has on costumes here, so I blend in. And besides, it's less than a day's flight here, and we stayed for so little a time at Disney Land the I felt I deserved this." Fang was shocked at her speech skills, but now wasn't the time to praise them. "Deserved? Deserved?! Since when did you just 'deserve' to runaway on a personal vacation?" They walked and talked to the entrance, Fang keeping a tight grip on her arm to make sure she didn't try to get away.

"Hey, it's no different than when Iggy did it. And besides, I—ew, you want to eat grimy sesame seed chicken?" she said, reading his thoughts. "Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah..." he said, not really hearing what she'd said. As they stepped outside, the others were there as though waiting on both of them. As one they ran foreward and enveloped Angel, berating her for her rash actions. "So, now can we get some chow? I'm about ready to rip my own wings off and roast them here!" Nudge said.

They'd found their goal, and everything was good. Or so they hoped. "Fine, let's see what California has to offer," Max said and they left with the happy feeling of a successful mission.

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Okay, I believe this might have lacked a bit in the comedy department, but it's getting late and I'm tired. Not to mention, my funny bone was spent writing a chapter to my current Inuyasha story, Mommas Boys. Anywho, do the dew and review! I've missed hearing from you guys! 


	13. Broken Home

One flock member's dislike for Jeb leads to ruining the lives of the others! Who is it?

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**Broken Home**

Stomachs full once again, the flock started on the long trek, or flight, home. "I feel like we're migrating or something," Nudge said. "No, this is nothing compared to when we had to fly from Virginia to Florida. I mean, we'll be back home in—how long, Max?" Gazzy asked. "In about five hours," Max said. "Man, I can't believe I flew all this way by myself!" Angel said excitedly. "Yes, and how redundant of you," Fang said. Iggy groaned and rolled his eyes. "Oooh, listen to Mr. Big Shot using his big words. Tell us Fang, what exactly _does _redundant mean?"

"Gladly," Fang said. "According to the Webster's dictionary, redundant means exceeding what is natural or necessary; superabundant. Or characterized by redundance; pleomastic." "And what the fuck does pleomastic mean?!" Iggy nearly shouted, getting frustrated. Fang shrugged. "Dunno. But it sounds cool. Pleomastic..." He said the word to himself, rolling it over his tounge. Iggy gave him a blind stare. "How about you stick to words you know the meaning of, okay? Not all of us read the dictionary for fun like you." "That's because you can't," Fang mouthed to himself so Iggy wouldn't know he'd said it.

"Super-cala-fragu-listic-expi-ala-do-shous!" Angel said. "I learned that from watching Mary Poppins! You don't always have to read the dictionary to learn new words, Iggy!" She told him sweetly. He smiled in her direction. "Yes, I know Angel. Thank you for your bright insight." She beamed him back a smile. "Hey, I have an idea! Let's play word games! You know, like how you might do a Mad Lib?" Nudge said. "I have one right here," She pulled a small Mad Lib book from her pocket. "We'll each take turns filling in the blanks to finish the story."

A/N: Mad Libs are stories that have blanks in them where usually a child (for it is meant to help them learn their parts of speech) fills in the blank with the appropriate part of speech. For example, say you're filling in the blanks and underneath one it says to put an adjective. You'd put any adjective you could think of, it doesn't have to make sense with the story! In the end, it usually comes out funny.

Nudge called out what each blank needed for Max. When all was done, she read it out loud. "One day, Nick took a walk on the Wal-Mart. He came across a very smelly bathtub. When he opened it, he found a pile of crap. He continued along until he met a monkey. The monkey was very hideous. It gave Nick a swift kick in the arse. They lived happily ever sometimes." She glanced up. "Who's next?" Fang was. His took Nudge a while to write down due to all the large words he used.

"Eienstein was a very emaciated fellow who was full of ebullience. He loved excavating for new belligerent things. His obnoxious attitude toward life was very pleomastic. Everything was redundant. He owned a sphinx by the name of Inuyasha. They were best erysipelas's." She looked up at him. "Okay, now all those words were redundant," she told Fang. He grinned at her for using his word. She didn't even want to continue playing after that. They flew on in silence.

The house was lit up like a Christmas tree when the flock reached it. There was no way to sneak in this time. Well, not that it'd do much good, it was evident that they were supposed to have been back home. Max opened the door and led them inside. Jeb was right there in the hall. "Where in blue blazes in hell have you been?" Jeb said, only an octave away from whispering. A new wrinkle on his forehead showed that he'd been worrying. "Hanging out," Max shrugged nonchalantly. "For sixteen hours? Don't move!" Jeb shouted at them as they had tried to make for their rooms. "That's it. I've had it up to _here _with you! You don't listen, you talk back, you think you're grown but you're not! I got another call from the principal. He wanted to know where all of you were at. I told him I thought you were at school. But since you guys weren't, I guess you were playing hooky, huh? Well, since the rest of you already have detention, he gave Angel it as well. Look what you did to your little sister!" He was breathing hard, nostrils flaring and a vein was popping on his neck.

"It's because of Angel that we missed school!" Gazzy shouted. His sister turned cold eyes to him. "Shut up," she said and he became quiet. Iggy picked up where he left off. "She'd flown all the way to Disney Land in California. We were just going after her." Jeb stared incredulously at Angel. "I knew there was something wrong with that innocent look of yours. I didn't know it included this, though. So, you decided on your own to skip school? I see I'm going to have to keep a better eye on you." "How redundant of you, Jeb," Fang said. "We've went whole months without your care." "Fang, don't speak unless you're ready to use words we all understand." Jeb told him. The boy narrowed his eyes and balled up a fist.

"I'm about to do something I should've done a long time ago." Jeb went on. He pulled his belt off. "Angel, hold your hands out," he instructed her. She slid them behind her back and backed away. Max stepped in front of her. "Don't you lay a hand on her!" "I'm not, the belt will do that for me," Jeb said. Max rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. She's just a little child, she doesn't know any better." "Oh, she knows! She's using her age as an excuse. Break 'em now or they'll never be taught! Like you guys," he said, looking over the others. But there were no others to look over. The rest had beat it to their rooms finally, Angel included. Max was all alone. "Oh, way to stick up for family," she muttered.

Jeb grabbed an arm and swung her around, planting a nice lick on her bottom with the belt. "Yow!" she shouted. "Dude, I'm fourteen! Don't you think I'm too old for this?!" "You're never too old for a spanking." He gave her another lick. She turned around and grabbed his arm. "Hit me again and I'll hit you." She growled. He yanked his arm back and went upstairs to the others' bedrooms. Max smirked. Already the sting was fading. It was lovely having such fast rejuvenating powers.

Jeb pounded against the locked bathroom door. "Occupied!" Angel's voice could be heard on the other side. "Bull! You're just acting like you're using the bathroom to get out of what you deserve!" He crashed through it, but gave a shout of horror to see the little girl on the toilet. She screamed as well. "Pervert! Pervert! Sexual harassment allegations! Law suits! Child fornicator! Rapist! Ruiner of innocence!" "So sorry Angel!" he cried out and slammed the door shut. Max stood in the hallway and smirked some more. "Serves you right," she said. He only said "hmph!" and stormed to Gazzy's room. He crashed through his door as well and several lashes could be heard before Gazzy screamed "I'm calling Child Services on you! And the School!" Jeb quickly left.

Nudge's room was unlocked. He came in there, eyes roving everywhere to find her, who had disappeared. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," Jeb said. "Okay, now that's just creepy," Max said. A small movement in a corner crammed with stuffed animals caught their eyes. Jeb pounced and pulled a disheveled looking Nudge from it. "WWJD! WWJD!" she said. But Jeb wasn't listening. Three lashes on the hands later and he left her room to go to Iggy's.

Iggy had thought ahead. The moment Jeb tried to walk in, something fell from above and landed on the dark floor. Iggy had his light off. Whatever it was ticked for a few seconds. Jeb immediately picked it up and threw it out the hall window. Somewhere down the mountain a large explosion went off. "Damn, he really has it in for you, huh?" Max said, staring at the window with an incredulous expression. Jeb turned back to the room and flipped the light on. Iggy was sitting on his bed listening to his iPod. Jeb started for him, but stopped at the rug on the floor. He grabbed it and threw it aside. There, a large hole could be seen. The house was shaped like a capitalized E, with the legs of the E sticking out over the edge of the mountain. Had Jeb stepped on the rug, he would have fallen into the living room where a similar rug was placed, one that hid a five hundred foot drop. But if you looked at the hole in the living room ceiling from above, it looked like the ceiling was still in tact due to a false bottom. It was clear that to get to the boy, some maneuvering would be required.

Jeb uncurled the belt from his hands and swung. It hit Iggy's hand, knocking the iPod out of them. The device came to rest at the man's feet. It gave one beep, then feel silent. "Oh no, stupid thing," Iggy muttered. He got up to check it, but Jeb grabbed him and gave him his licks. Hands stinging and pride hurt, Iggy finally picked up the iPod. He slapped it and it started beeping again. "Everybody hit the dirt!" he shouted, throwing it down the hole. It detonated in the living room. Debris rushed up and shook the foundations. They could feel the house really shift (just as Nudge had said had happened during Gazzy's explosion) and then start teetering. Then, the whole structure pitched forward off the mountain.

In all of the rooms, screaming could be heard, Fang's the loudest. Distinctly they heard, "We're gonna die! We're gonna die! I knew I should've banged Lissa when I had the chance!" Jeb and Max's eyes met for a moment as they were pressed against Iggy's walls, then went back to Iggy's window, which was now parallel to the ground. They could see the mountain rushing by as they fell. As a last minute decision, she grabbed the man and allowed herself to fall through the window, Iggy following her sound. Then quickly before they were crushed by the house, they shot out and upwards. Max had just enough time to register that the others had done the same thing before the structure smashed into the ground, two-by-fours becoming splinters of wood. For a moment, a deep echo could be heard up the mountain.

Then: "Avalanche!" Gazzy shouted, pointing. A large side of the mountain had broken off, causing a heavy slide of dirt and rocks. Max reached out and grabbed everyone's shirt as best as she could and used her warp speed to back up just in time before a large boulder came crashing down in the spot where they had been. She panted from the exertion of holding Jeb up. She was already tired from flying all day and swooped to the ground, the others following. As soon as he landed, Jeb walked over to what remained of the house. He rummaged though it until he came upon a singing fish plaque that sang "Don't Worry, Be Happy." It no longer sang. "Noooooooooooooooo!" he howled. Max could have sworn he had a bit of a feral look in his eye, like the same that an eraser might have. "All that over a fish? It's only five dollars at Dollar General, Jeb, we can get you another one." But the man just fell to his knees, sobbing.

Nobody said anything for awhile. They only stood around, embarrassed at the crying of the grown man in front of them. Finally, Nudge asked, "So, we're homeless?" Jeb sniffed and wiped his eyes off on his sleeve. "Yes, Nudge, we're homeless. Thank god I have insurance, though! The house can be re-built but it's not going to be as big as before. Half of the money was already spent from repairing the roof from Gazzy. You guys will have to bunk with each other. Not just when it's rebuilt, but at the hotel we're going to have to stay in until god knows when." Everyone started groaning and complaining. "Hey! I don't want to hear it!" Jeb shouted. "Grab what you can and come on. Oh, and um...Max? Could you fly me back up the mountain to the car?"

She groaned and pointed to Fang, who was holding a crying Total. "Oh no, now Seth will never get to call me!" The dog wailed. Fang quickly dropped him. "God, this is so redundant!" he yelled to no one in particular. "Using the word redundant was redundant," Gazzy muttered. Fang acted like he hadn't heard him and stared uncomfortably at Jeb. "I don't think I'd feel right holding another man...not my style..." Max punched him and he relented. He grabbed the man in the best way he felt comfortable. By a leg. Jeb hung upside down and Fang flew him to the top of the mountain, screaming all the way.

Max couldn't believe that this was all that was left of their "home." It hadn't been much perhaps, but it sure beat staying at a hotel. She gave another groan and started searching for what salvageable items she could, not being able to help thinking that Iggy's bomb had been redundant.

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Well, didn't I take a twist here! This sounds like it could perhaps lead to another story! But, it's still on point with the main plot. This was their Friday, meaning tomorrow's the chapter that you've all been waiting for, their Saturday detention! Oh, and just one thing I'd like to put here about Fang's comment about Lissa...well, it's evident that he's too young for intercourse, not to mention he really doesn't like her anymore (and what would he know of sex? wingsgirl1313 posted a story called The Talk based on this, go check it out!). But when you're about to die, I guess you say some things that might surprise even yourself! And I based the fact that Fang kept using the word redundant off of the books. I heard him say it a few times and wondered if it was a favorite word of his or something. Okay, enough of this. Please review! 


	14. Paranoia

Okay, before you guys read this, I have to admit to something. I lied about this being the chapter where their detention starts, sorry! This is more of a passing the time away chapter, you know, to get to the next day without leaving a gap in time...or a hiatus, which is one of our vocabulary words in English! I know it's been a long time since I've updated (been tired again, even on a half day at school I came home exhausted! Been missing my naps!) not to mention currently I'm worried because I think I left my headphones at school...I carry them everywhere with me and usually while writing at home, I'll listen to music on my laptop...but without them, I'm screwed! So, if my comedy lacks here, sorry, but my concentrations off. I just didn't want to wait any longer before I updated. Nonetheless, I hope you find some enjoyment in this. (Why am I telling you guys my whole life story? Who cares?!)!

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**Paranoia**

The hotel room wasn't as bad as Max had thought it was going to be. There was a nice floral print on the walls and the room was spacious. It even included a kitchenette and something akin to a living room. The only thing that was a problem was that Jeb had only rented one room. He wasn't lying when he'd said that they'd be sharing the space.

Angel and Nudge shot past her at the entrance and ran all over the place, looking in every closet, nook and cranny. "I like it," Angel declared. "I got dibs on the first bed in the bedroom room!" "Me too!" Nudge said. Gazzy had sat himself in an armchair and noticed that it leaned back with a foot rest that came up. "I call this chair!" he shouted to the others. Max noticed that they were trying their hardest to not have to do any overly bunking with each other. She shrugged and said that she didn't mind sleeping on the couch, leaving one bed for Jeb to have in another room adjoined to this one and one more in the same room being shared with the girls. She wanted one of the younger members to have it, but the only ones who hadn't claimed a spot were Iggy and Fang.

Fang had already thrown his backpack on the bed and taken off his shoes, getting comfortable. Iggy sat down next to him. "I have back problems, I can't sleep on the floor," he said pointedly. Fang stared at him. "Since when?" he asked. "Since we've had to sleep in sewers and trees and shit. My back's all out of wack because of that." he stripped off his shirt and settled in under the comforter. Fang only glanced at him again, then grabbed the top blanket and turned away from him. He felt Iggy shift. Then shift again. Finally, the boy pushed him in his back. "Hey, you're on my covers. Move." "You move," Fang snapped, trying to go to sleep. He was dog tired from the day's journey and was getting irritable because of it.

"But I can't until _you _move," Iggy growled, shoving him hard in the back. Fang swung around and gave him a slight punch on the arm. "Don't touch me! I don't like to be touched! It gets me angry! And you won't like me when I'm angry!" he shouted. Iggy shrunk back. "God, what the hell is wrong with you?" He took that moment to snatch his covers from up under Fang and settled on his side of the bed. The girls got into theirs and the light was shut off by Max, who retreated to the couch.

Slowly the night passed away. Snores could be heard from everyone around the rooms, especially from Nudge, who sounded like an oncoming train. Somewhere in the wee ours of the morning, Fang woke up to notice that Iggy had rolled over towards him and that they were now face to face and were close to each other. _Very _close to each other. Iggy's eyes fluttered open sleepily. Then, slowly, he reached out a hand and stroked Fang's arm. "Hey," he whispered. Fang closed his eyes slowly and counted to three before answering. "What?" he whispered back. "You smell nice." His eyes snapped back open and he sat up. Or tried to. Until he noticed that Total had been leaning over him and staring him in the face very intently.

"You two get the hell away from me!" he screamed out, waking up everyone. Jeb ran into their room with a metal baseball bat, hair wild and sleep still in his eyes. "What, who's here?" he asked in a confused, alarmed voice. Iggy sat up to and rubbed his eyes. "What? What are you talking about?" "No, what are _you _talking about?!" Fang said hysterically, jumping out the bed and pointing an accusing finger at him. "Okay, Fang. We all known that as of late, you've gone kind of weird on us. But this is just...redundant," Iggy said, trying to get the boy to hear him on his own level. "No, you telling me I smell nice was redundant! I could've went without hearing that!" Iggy blinked and gave him a blind stare. "What the hell do you mean I said you smell nice?! You're trippin'!" "No, I am not tripping, you are!" Fang said, saying "tripping" very proper without dropping the g. "Wait, start over, how'd this begin? Jeb asked.

Fang threw a wary glance at Iggy, then recounted how he had been blissfully counting sheep and dreaming of wearing a wool coat when Iggy had so rudely made his comment. Then, he told how Total had been staring at him with a "deep look of longing in his eyes." When he was done, a silence echoed across the room. Finally, Total spoke. "Fang, nobody wants you. I mean, you're quite a looker--" here Fang cringed--"But you're not my type. As your dog, I'm your best four-legged friend. That's my job in life, to be man's best friend. Nothing else. And I don't even have to do that if I don't feel like it! Why do you think dogs rebel?"

"And as for what you said I had said," Iggy jumped in. "I was thinking of Tess." "Your eyes were open!" Fang countered. "They were? Hm...Look, all I know was that I was dreaming about going to the prom with Tess and we were dancing and I told her she smelled nice. I must have spoken out loud." "But when you asked 'Hey' and I said what, you just so happened to answer back with that!" Fang shouted. "Look, I'm not after you, okay?!!" Iggy finally screamed back, losing his temper. At this moment, he wished he had a plastic spoon to stab him with.

Jeb came between them. "Okay, okay, enough. Fang, Iggy's not..." he couldn't finish. "Um, you know. And Iggy, if you want..." he tried to think of another place the boy could sleep at. Suddenly, Angel spoke up. "There's a study down the hall that has a couch. Iggy could sleep there." They stared at her. "Why didn't you sleep there?" Fang asked. "Because, Nudge's snoring scares the monsters away." she responded. They chuckled at her naivety, then Iggy got up with his covers and pillow and left for the study. Total switched beds and went to sleep with the girls, and for some reason, Max never once stirred.

Fang rolled over and pulled the covers over his head, trying to make up for lost time before they had to get up. He had dismissed Iggy's statement already, he knew that he had overreacted. But Total's...he'd have to keep an eye out for him. Note to self: set up a private spot for him and the stuffed husky.

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Alright, I didn't set out for the chapter to be like that, but like I said, muse is running kind of low...I could just ask for another pair of earphones, they're so cheap...but I'm a person who never asks for wants. Even needs (like the money for my graduation packet that's due...now!) I'm hesitant to ask for. I go on huge guilt trips about things like that, don't know why. But anyways, I know the subject of this chapter was a bit...off, to say the least, but I'll let you guys say so in your own words. Please review! 


	15. Initiating the Inevitable

Finally, the long awaited detention! The beginning of the end! Oh, and I'm so sorry for the long pause. I warned my readers of my other story, but forgot to warn you guys! I was out of school for a week due to everyone at my school but seniors who had to do March testing...perhaps you guys had to do it as well, for I believe it's a nation-wide thing (and in some other countries, they do it too, as I was informed by an international friend!). But the down-side of that was that I had no way to update, so I apologize for the long wait! But this is the next to last chapter anyways, so we're nearly at the end of my first flock story! Well, as I've often said, read it, like it, love it, review it! 

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**Initiating the Inevitable**

"Top of the morning folks and a beautiful morning it is!" The cheery newscaster said. "Like hell it is," Iggy muttered to himself from his standing position right in front of the screen. "Now Margret, will you give us a look at the forecast?" "Sure will, Bob. Today we'll be having..." "Fuck you, Bob," Iggy whispered, muttering more obscenities under his breath as he went to the small table in the dining area. Everyone was awake here on this Saturday morning to do their time for their crimes. 

"You know, I still don't see why I got in trouble," Nudge was telling anyone who'd listen, which no one really was due to being lost in their own dreary thoughts of the day. "I mean, all I did was knock over some stupid aquarium. Those plants and that bug dying was probably the best thing that could've happened to them. Who the heck wants to live with a nut job like that woman?" "Damaging school property," Jeb said quietly from the other side of his newspaper. The girl huffed and folded her arms. 

Despite the breakfast that Iggy and Fang had cooked (Fang helping since he felt bad about the night before), no one ate. They picked with their food and shuffled it around on their plates until Total said, "You know, if you're not going to eat it, just give it here." Max glanced down at him, then went over to his bowl in the corner of the room and scraped her food into it. Like some kind of donation line, the rest of the flock lined up to do the same. Jeb put his paper down and looked at his watch. "Well, let's get this show on the road." In that same line, they left out to the car. 

Usually whenever they went anywhere with Jeb, the two youngest always fought over who would ride shotgun, Angel always beating her brother by controlling his mind. But today, no one was in the mood for fighting. The vehicle was an SUV with two rows of seats and allowed everyone to fit in the back if they wanted to. They all climbed in but Fang, noticing that no one else had gotten into the front seat, sat there. Jeb turned to some country music station and still no one said anything. Trying to get a reaction out of them, he flipped it to a hip-hop and R&B station. Silence. Then he switched it over to AM. Not a word. "My god, who died?" he joked as he pulled out of the parking lot. More silence. 

Jeb rolled the windows down for Total, who had tagged along for the ride, to put his head out. He didn't notice that Fang had leaned his head against the window and had dozed off so that when the window started rolling down, his face went with it. After a moment, there wasn't anymore window left and his face fell swiftly onto the door. He woke up with a start. "Whitecoats? Where?" he said, looking around quickly. "In your dreams," Jeb said with a tight chuckle, feeling a little guilty for being the reason that he was so paranoid. He stayed awake for the rest of the ride. 

Half an hour later, they pulled up to the school. It was eerie seeing it with not a student on the premises and barely any cars in the parking lot. Jeb glanced back at them. "Well, here you go. I'd tell you guys to be good, but the opposite always seems to happen. Just try not to get Saturday detention during Saturday detention." They still said nothing and filed out of the car with grim expressions. "Call me when you're done." He told them, then pulled away. They stared up at the school that seemed so much more menacing now that hardly anyone was there. "Well, come on guys. Let's go and get this over with." Max said, leading the way. 

They went to the front office, figuring that the principal would be there. They didn't even have to go that far. He was standing in the main hallway, hands in his pockets and a bright grin on his face. "Ah, so I see that you were all able to make it! Well, come along then. Ms. Scott is in the cafeteria waiting for you." They entered the school's dining room to see the red haired girl that Fang had once been so enamored with sitting down at a table, scowling as they came in. He scowled right back and had half a mind to scare her away with his wings. 

They were divided up into groups. Nudge and Gazzy were made to buff the cafeteria tables. Iggy and Fang were told to scrub lockers, and Max and Lissa were given the job of cleaning the girls' bathrooms. "What!" Lissa shouted. "I am so not cleaning any toilets! I mean, I just got a manicure! I'm too cute to clean!" Max let out a snarl and grabbed the girls' expensive sweater and dragged her to the first bathroom she came across. There, she shoved a rag and a bottle of some cleaning product in her hands. "Look, I'm trying to get the hell out of here as fast as possible. I'm not trying to hear anymore of your perfect princess talk. Just shut up and scrub." And with that, she started working on the sinks, leaving the toilets for last. 

Angel, being so young, wasn't given any hard manual work. Instead, she was made to sharpen pencils for a very long time, then place them neatly back into their boxes. Oh, and the pencil sharpener wasn't mechanical. By the end of the first hour, her wrist was hurting but there seemed no end to the pile. From her seat at the back of the cafeteria, she watched Nudge and Gazzy work. They raced around the room as though caught in hyper speed due to being faster than ordinary humans and swept their wash cloths on the tables as they went. She sighed, envying their "freedom." 

Iggy and Fang started on the seniors' lockers first. "Can't wait till I'm a senior," Iggy said as he scrubbed, not really knowing if they were coming out clean since he couldn't see. "I mean, think of all the things we'll be able to do. Prom, the senior trip, graduation, they get it all." "Hm," was all Fang said, returning to his silent self. "And then a senior prank! Oh man, I'm gonna love that!" "Mm-hm," Fang nodded. "And college girls love high school boys! It's in their genetic codes!" Fang finally stopped washing and looked at him. "What kind of back-woods logic are you using?" he asked with a puzzled expression. "What, you don't agree?" Iggy asked. "No, I don't," Fang said, starting up his cleaning again. Iggy shrugged. "Shows how much you know," he muttered. Fang stopped again, spun his wash cloth in his hands, then rat-tailed him. "Ouch!" Iggy screamed, grabbing his arm. Fang only picked up his cleaning supplies and moved to the other side of the hall. 

Back in the girls' room, Lissa was trying to get up her nerve to empty out a trash can. "Oh, I don't even want to think about what's in there!" she said, grimacing. "Trash, what else?" Max scoffed. Lissa narrowed her eyes. "Gee, did you figure that out all by yourself, Sherlock? I'm talking about specifics." "It's not like you have to touch the stuff, just pull the can out and dump it in that trash bag. God, quit being such a girl," Max said, going back to cleaning a stall. "Uh, if you haven't noticed, we are girls!" Lissa retorted. "Then again, Max...ha, Max...not Maxine or anything, just Max. Such a boys name. Maybe you're not a girl." 

Max snapped. She grabbed the girl's head and, lifting up the toilet seat, pushed it into the water, flushing it repeatedly. "How about I wash that pretty little face of yours for you, hm? A swirly will do wonders for your complexion!" Lissa gurgled and struggled, but Max didn't let up her grip. "This is for being such a stuck-up pig! And for looking down on my family like we're animals! And for hurting Fang! That boy actually cared about you, the only person he ever showed feelings for outside of--" She was about to say "the flock" but stopped herself just in time. "Outside of...of family! And this is just for you being you, which I can't stand!" She continued to flush the girl a few more times, then grabbed a handful of hair and jerked her back, pushing her outside of the stall. 

"You're crazy! You're fucking crazy!" Lissa gasped, stumbling to get up. "Stay the hell away from me!" She screamed, running out of the bathroom. Max thought nothing of it, until the idea of her telling the principal hit her. "Damnit!" She tore out of there after her, but Lissa was only a few feet to the door. Max put on her hyper-drive and caught up, tackling her to the ground. They struggled, Lissa kicking and screaming like a banshee, while Max tried to pin her down with her arms. When that wasn't working, she started strangling her. The office door opened and there stood Mr. Walton. Strangely, he didn't look angry, but rather bemused by what he saw. "Well, well, well, Ms. Maxine. It seems like you still haven't learned to treat others with respect. I will not tolerate your behavior any longer. You can tell your father that you are now expelled." Then he turned around and went back in. 

Max had stopped choking the girl. Lissa stood up, then ran away outside of the school. Max didn't give chase. She straightened up her clothes, then went into the cafeteria to watch the younger members finish with their cleaning. She sat down at the same table Angel was still sharpening pencils at. Angel took one look at her, then shouted out, "You're expelled!" Gazzy and Nudge stopped cleaning and Fang and Iggy, hearing her on the other side of the school, came to see what was happening. There was no sense in denying it, they'd find out sooner or later. She shrugged and nodded. 

After that, a rebellion broke out. Iggy threw his bottle against a wall as hard as he could, watching it crack and splatter all over. Fang flipped over a few tables effortlessly. Gazzy and Nudge kicked their buckets of water, and Angel broke all of the pencils she'd sharpened, littering them on the floor. Max stared at them, namely Fang since he was the second oldest. "Wherever you go, we're following. We stick together as a team. Even in expulsion." Everyone but her clapped and cheered his nicely expressed words. "Um, but you guys still go here," Max pointed out. Fang stared at everyone else, and as one, they marched to the principals office. 

Without knocking, he burst through the door. Like a SWAT leader, he signaled the others around the room. Gazzy jumped on a desk and kicked a globe through the window. Angel ripped down the curtains. Nudge started pulling out draws and emptying their contents on the floor. Iggy grabbed stacks of important files and ran them through the paper shredder. And Max...well, she was already expelled, so she helped Fang tag the room with a can of spray paint he just happened to be carrying on his person. "Never know when you're gonna need it," he told her later. 

Mr. Walton reached for the phone, but Angel stopped him. "You don't want to do that Mr. Walton," she said. His eyes went vacant and he dropped his hand. "I don't think I want to do that," he said, sitting back and watching them destroy his office. When they were done, they left neatly enough. Fang stopped a moment to spray paint a pair of wings on the door. Then, elated in their deeds, they ran out the front doors where they took off in flight. Jeb would have a field day chastising them about their behavior, but who was he kidding? They had never liked Schools. 

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Ah, so close! There's the detention for you! I have one last chapter to post, so get all your reviews and comments in now! Hope you liked it!


	16. Contagious Circles

Here it is, the last chapter! I don't want to tell out too much right here, but I can warn you of this…the ending is a doozy! But if you think you can take on the challenge, go ahead…just don't come crying to me with a headache later on! For the last time (at least for this story) Read it, like it, love it, review it! Or so I can only hope…!

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**Contagious Circles**

The ticking of the clock was the only noise in the room. It was shaped like a cat with eyes and a tail that swished back and forth as the pendulum inside of it moved. Like some kind of recurring nightmare, Jeb sat in a single armchair across from the rest of the flock, who sat patiently in a row on the couch before him, waiting for their conviction…one that would never come.

"That's it," he said, nearly whispering the words. Max and Fang, who sat next to each other, met each other's eyes but said nothing. "I can't do this anymore. I'm too old for this. I mean, when I first started out, I thought it'd be all cool, you know?" Now everyone was staring at each other trying to figure out what he was talking about. "I mean, hell, we'd mixed pigs with goats and rabbits with dogs, which I really found hilarious. Ever seen a hopping dog? Man, the dog shows we won with that one! Or even the liger was a nice twist…nearly were exposed for what we truly were when National Geographic found out about it, but that was quickly swept under the carpet. But you guys? Oh, didn't I get more than I bargained for!"

"'Just take them home with you for a few days,' Alex had said," Jeb went on with his one sided rant. "'Just to see how they react outside of their cages.' Well I took you guys home. I figured it'd be something like how Dave has to deal with Alvin and the chipmunks. A few trouble spots here and there, but in the end, we'd stick together like family. Ha, well now I see to hell with that idea!" Jeb shook his head bitterly. "Is what I did so horrible that you have to do this to an old man?" He pleaded with them. Angel opened her mouth to say something but Nudge elbowed her in her ribs and she shut her mouth. The rest of the flock remained silent. Jeb gave a harsh chuckle. "The old silent treatment, eh? That's fine. You'll have plenty of time to be silent…in your cages."

The words hadn't passed his lips in over a second before they took action. Max charged him and knocked him out the way. Fang used his strength to keep him against the wall, letting the younger ones run out of the room. When everyone had left, he gave him a hard punch to the stomach and watched him curl up on the floor. "Oh, and FYI, your spinach lasagna tasted like cow vomit!" he yelled. He didn't stay long enough to watch Jeb's eyes fill with tears at his comment. _My mother taught me that recipe, you ungrateful bastard. _

And for the umpteenth time that week, they were off in the sky. It was a beautiful day, the sun shining, the birds singing, the smell of sewage in your nose…wait, what? The scenery dissolved like the last image at the end of a movie and what materialized before Max was a dark tunnel with dripping pipes and the sound of rats scurrying in the distance. "Where am I?" she wondered out loud. Someone near her mumbled in the darkness and touched her arm. "What?" they asked. "Where am I?" Max said again, louder. Now several forms shifted, many warm bodies touching her. "Chicago," she heard Iggy say irritably. "Don't you remember telling us that was our next destination? " He shifted away and she could no longer feel his heat. Someone else too k his place.

"Max, are you okay?" Fang asked, reaching out a hand for hers, but instead brushing her face. "I thought we were in Colorado?" she said, fear creeping in her voice despite her efforts to control it. She could barely make out the raised eyebrow the boy gave her. "We haven't been in Colorado for over eight months. Are you sure you're okay?" "She's probably hearing that Voice again," Iggy snickered from a safe distance away. The two youngest members started up a chant, saying "Max is going crazy! Max is going crazy!" Nudge even joined in and together, they started doing a war chant around her, dances and all.

Max was trying to arrange her thoughts, but strange images kept interrupting them. What happened to school? What happened to blowing up the house? What happened to…Jeb? "Max is going crazy! Max is going crazy!" the chant continued. Her head started to throb. "Fang, what happened to the house?" she managed. "Gone to bits. Iggy blew it up, remember?" She did remember…but then…? "Where's Jeb?" she asked again, raising her voice over the chant that was growing louder. She made out a shrug. "Who knows, who gives a damn? The guy was against our existence from the start." She pressed her fingers to her temples to try and concentrate.

"Max is going crazy! Max is going crazy! Max is going crazy! Max is going--" "Shut the hell up!" Max finally shouted at them. The war chants and the Indian dances stopped. "Gol-ly! Just trying to lighten up the mood a little," Gazzy said under his breath. "There's other ways you can do it rather than shouting out for the whole world to hear that I'm losing my marbles," Max said heatedly. She stood up and paced around for a moment. "So, the house is gone, no one knows where Jeb is, and somehow we've reached Chicago, is that right?" They nodded.

She stopped and gave a short laugh. "Then I guess I've just had the craziest dream ever. I dreamed we had to go to school—" "But we did!" Angel said. Max went on. "And we kept getting in trouble and so the authorities kept punishing us—" "But all that really happened!" Gazzy interrupted, but Max was paying him no attention. "And then the idiot gave us detention and we had to wash tables and lockers and scrub toilets and—" This time, Fang interrupted.

"Enough!" he said. He pulled her arm and took her off to the side. "Are you sure you're okay? I mean, you did have a tuna fish sandwich last night from that gas station, after I told you that it wasn't wise to eat it. But you just had to since it was so cheap. Now tell me, was it worth it?" Max blinked at him. "What the hell does having a tuna fish sandwich have to do with dreams?! Please link those two together because it's not making sense to me." He only shook his head and walked back to the others, who all were now chanting, "Max is going crazy." And then joined them!

She sat down where she stood. The house was gone, like she expected it to be, Jeb was out of their lives…but going to school…Was it all a dream? Amid the chants, Fang met her eyes. They had an expression about them that she could almost read like a book. Regardless to what he had said to her, they clearly read, "You are not alone."

_You're not going crazy, _the Voice told her. _Getting a bit eccentric, perhaps…Fang warned you about that tuna fish sandwich you know, but other than that you're mental stability is fine. He knows what you're going through, for he too experienced this déjà vu with a situation involving Total. But let go of the past, for it cannot be corrected. Just know that you are NOT going crazy!_

"Yeah, that's real easy advice to follow when it's a strange voice that's telling it," Max muttered, but shrugged it off. Okay, so maybe she couldn't put all of the pieces of this puzzle together. Maybe it was another test she was being put through. Regardless, it _was _in the past and there was nothing she could do about it.

She walked over to the others to restore her title and her dignity.

* * *

Ah, what a conundrum! I know there's going to be plenty of flames over my choice of the ending…but personally, I'm liking the whole mind games thing! I didn't want the ending to be so straight foreword, exercise your gray matter(brain)! Think a little people, when you read this! The ending isn't as confusing I hope as Fang's ordeal was…and if you have any questions, do ask POLITELY! Here's a very good clue as to how I came up with them being in the sewers and not at the hotel…think back to the first and second books (like I've said, I haven't read the third one yet). Do you remember how they ended up in their situation with leaving Colorado behind in the first place? There's a huge part of your answer!

So, even if you hate me for this, I still love ya as a reviewer because it's all comments as one that help to make a writer, either for the better or for the worse, and I'm appreciative of everything that everyone has sent! I'm probably not going to do another flock story…let me buy all of the books and then I'll be able to write with no loose strings myself as to how the story goes! I really hope you guys enjoyed this and do check out/be on the look out for more of my work!

Till we meet again, A.D. Williams signing out!


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